Five Brothers
by Jessie Halliwel
Summary: This is basically the movie 'Four Brothers' with a sister. The story is told from her point of view. If you have not seen the movie, I warn you this is basically the whole movie.
1. The Loss Of A Mercer

I rubbed my hands together as I walked up to the store with the words 'Holiday Specials' on the windows. I knew Mom was here tonight. I smiled as a boy hurried out of the store, probably a kid Mom had just scolded for something. Ready to get my ass out of the cold, I walked into the store. Mom's lips curled up into a smile as I walked over to her.

"Sam, what are you doing here, honey?" Mom asked me as I gave her a hug.

"I just wanted to stop by on my way home," I said, blowing on my frozen hands.

"How many times do I tell you to wear gloves?" Mom asked, not looking happy as she rubbed my hands between hers to warm them.

"I forgot," I lied.

"I bet you did," Mom said, knowing I was lying before I had even said anything.

"Well, I got to get going," I said, wanting to head home and give Jack a call before it got too late.

"It's too late for you to be out anyway," Mom told me.

I laughed lightly before giving Mom a kiss on the cheek.

"Bye, Mom," I said before waving at the man behind the register.

"Hurry home, now," Mom said as I walked out the door.

"I will," I told her and walked back into the cold night air.

On my way out, I saw a car parked outside of the store, two guys sitting inside. I couldn't see their faces. It was to dark out. I ignored them as I hurried down the street, towards Mom's house. I crossed my arms over my chest and rubbed my arms as I hummed softly to myself. A moment later, I jumped at the sounds of gunshots. I came to a quick halt and spun around. I knew I was being paranoid. But this was Detroit. Anyone could get shot. Even Mom. I began to turn back to start walking home again. But something in me made me run back towards the store instead. I slowed down in front of the store I had just left and stared at the windows. From the outside it looked the same as a few minutes ago. I slowly walked over to the door and pushed it open. It felt like a knife slammed into my heart as I let out a scream that could wake the dead and ran over to Mom's body on the floor. No, no, no. NO! She was okay. She had to be okay. I took Mom's arm and turned her over to find two holes with blood flowing freely from them. I let out another scream and looked away from Mom's body. She couldn't be dead! I wouldn't believe it!

(So, did you guys like it?) 


	2. Me and My Brothers

I was only half listening at Mom's funeral as I bit my hand to keep from crying out loud. I couldn't keep the tears from running down my cheeks, but I wouldn't scream like I had ever since I had found Mom in the store the night of her death. To avoid staring at the picture of Mom not to far away from me, I glanced at each of my brothers. Bobby, as usual, was the strong and tough guy, keeping it together like I thought he would. Jerry was with his wife Camille. He looked sad, but not enough to start breaking down in front of people like I was. And Jack stood next to me, crying to. I had expected this. Jack and I were the youngest in the family and we had both been super close to Mom. I was killing us inside to see her go.

(Flashback)

"Hi there, Samantha," Mom, or Ms. Evelyn as I knew her by then, said as a man carried me into her house.

I sucked on my thumb, having the perfect excuse mot to talk to anyone. Before all the foster homes and crappy families, I had been a big talker. I actually never shut up. But after having been told to shut up by so many people, a five year old learns to keep her mouth shut.

"Come on, Samantha. Say hi," the man holding me said as he looked into my eyes.

I shook my head; my long dark curls of hair falling over my face.

"She's a shy one," Ms. Evelyn said with a smile that I liked. She seemed nice. But so did that family with the cute dog.

The man finally put me down and I looked around the house.

"I'm so glad this one found nice home," the man said as he looked down at me.

I wasn't listening to him though. I was staring at the ceiling as I heard loud thuds and banging from upstairs. What was up there?

"Hey, sweetie," Ms. Evelyn said as she knelt down in front of me.

She took my hand and gave it a little shake.

"You want to take your thumb out of your mouth so you can talk?" she asked me.

I shook my head once again. I was busy staring at her. She was so pretty. She had bright eyes like sapphires. And her wavy hair was gold like the sun. I lifted my tiny hand and touched her hair, which made her smile.

"You are too sweet," she said with a giggle, loving how cute I was as everyone did. But looks can be deceiving.

As I touched her hair, the toy horse I had under my arm slipped and fell to the floor. I gasped and quickly went to pick it up. But Ms. Evelyn picked it up and handed it to me. I wanted to say thank you, but I didn't want to talk. I winced at the fact that I didn't thank the nice lady.

"You're welcome," Ms. Evelyn said, catching the look on my face and knowing what I was thinking.

"Well, not to be rude. But I really must be going, Evelyn," the man said and shook Ms. Evelyn's hand.

"Be careful. There's a slippery layer of ice right over there. Bye," Ms. Evelyn said before closing the door and turning to me.

I quietly stood still, hugging my toy horse as Ms. Evelyn knelt down again. She was trying like so many others to get me to talk. But I wasn't saying a word. I couldn't talk to anyone. My mommy was the only person I had ever really talked to. But she was gone. She promised to come back for me though.

"Do you like boys?" Ms. Evelyn asked me.

She laughed softly at the surprised look on my face. I was good for those 'Oh my god!' looks with my dark eyes and cute face. I shook my head hard, not liking boys at all. Only grown up girls liked boys. Yuck!

"I mean, do you like to play with boys as friends?" Ms. Evelyn corrected herself.

I twisted my mouth in contemplation as I thought if I had ever had any boys as friends. I had had a few. Boys weren't so bad. At least they didn't throw Barbie dolls at you when they got mad. This time I nodded and Ms. Evelyn's smile grew bigger. She was happy. I didn't make very many people happy.

"Well, it's good you like boys. You have four new brothers," she told me, pointing to the ceiling where I had heard all the noise coming from.

My eyes went wide again. Brothers? I had never had brothers. All the families that usual adopted me had no children. And I never made friends with any of the other kids at the foster homes. It was just a shock to experience something different than the usual only child, get in, freak the people out, and get going routine.

"Want to meet them?" Ms. Evelyn asked me and held out her hand to me.

I wasn't sure I did want to meet these boys. There were four of them and one of me. But I had Ms. Evelyn. I nodded and slowly took her hand. She led me over to the stairs and up them.

"Boys!" she called from the hallway as I heard music coming from the room to my right.

One boy, maybe fifteen, came out of the first bedroom. He was a lot taller than me and had short dark hair. I could tell he was tough by the confident look on his face and the smirk on his lips when he saw me. Another boy followed. This one was a little shorter, thirteen years old at least. He had clean-cut hair and nice looking clothes compared to the older boy, who wore torn jeans and a sweatshirt. I was surprised more than ever when I saw one was white and the other black.

"This is Bobby," Ms. Evelyn said as she introduced me to the older boy, the white one. "Bobby, this is Samantha."

I waved softly with my little hand as I continued to suck on the thumb of my other hand.

"You know, thumb sucking makes your teeth fall out?" the other boy, the black one, said seriously.

"Jeremiah!" Ms. Evelyn scolded as she rubbed my back when she saw the scared look in my eyes.

Just as I calmed down, a third boy came out the room with the music. He was black to, probably a year younger than Jeremiah. He had a perfect smile and was really cute. I liked him already. He smiled at me, looking happy that I was there.

"Finally, a sister. I was getting sick of brothers," he said as he held out his hand to me.

I took it in mine and shook his hand. He was nice to. So far he was my favorite.

"This is Angel, Samantha," Ms. Evelyn told me.

Angel, huh? The name makes sense with his looks. Wait, didn't she say there were four brothers? Where was the last one? Was he nice? Or would he tell me scaring stuff about my teeth falling out? I turned when I heard footsteps and a boy appeared in the doorway of the room at the end of the hall. He's also white, like Bobby.

"Hi," he said softly as he walked up to me.

He was different from the others. He was quiet like me and he wasn't all that big. He was taller than me of course, nine years old I'm guessing. But he's thin and tiny, not yet close to his teenager years like his brothers. Also his long light brown hair was messy, like he wasn't as concerned about his appearance as the others were. Okay, never mind about Angel. I liked this brother the best.

"This is Jack. You two are a lot alike," Ms. Evelyn said as knelt down beside me. "You and Jack are going to share a room. Is that okay?"

I nodded, not having a problem with sharing a room with anyone. It's not like I hadn't done it before.

"Well, lets get you washed up before we have dinner. Do you like chicken and mashed potatoes?" Ms. Evelyn asked and took my hand in hers again.

I shrugged, not knowing how to answer the question. I had never had anything beside bad tasting oatmeal or fast food.

"Have you had chicken or mashed potatoes?" Jack asked, understanding why I couldn't give Ms. Evelyn an answer.

I shook my head. I mean I had had those foods before, but it had been such a long time I couldn't remember what they tasted like anymore.

"Well, that's what we're having tonight. Now go ahead and head into the bathroom while I get you some clothes," Ms. Evelyn said and pointed me in the direction of the bathroom.

I was use to obeying orders and hurried into the bathroom. I stood in silence, waiting for Ms. Evelyn to come back. She returned fast, closing the door behind her. I watched her without a word as she set a pair of clothes on the sink behind her and took something out of her pocket.

"Do you like jewelry?" Ms. Evelyn asked me.

I nodded quickly with a smile. I love jewelry, always have.

"I have something for you," Ms. Evelyn said and handed me whatever was in here hand.

I looked down and saw it was a gold necklace with a ballerina charm on it. I gasped, removing my thumb from my mouth. I looked back at Ms. Evelyn and she smiled at me.

"Do you like it?" she asked.

Did I like it? Of coursed I liked it. I even loved it. I didn't say anything as usual. Ms. Evelyn looked a bit hurt that I didn't answer. But that changed when I threw my arms around her and hugged her tightly.

"I guess that's a yes," she said and returned my hug.

After the funeral, I leaned against Jerry's garage door while staring at the necklace Mom had giving so many years ago, once against trying to calm down before I started crying again. I had done a lot of that lately. I frowned slightly when I saw Green and his partner Fowler parked in their car. They were both looking at me and my brothers, probably talking shit about us. Everybody else did, so why shouldn't they? I chuckled to myself as Jerry talked to some ladies that Mom had known. I spotted Jack walking across the street with a cigarette in his hand, Bobby following him. They talked for a second before I saw them both headed my way. I smiled when they reached Jerry and me. Bobby and Jerry hugged before Jerry gave Jack a hug to. Where the hell was Angel? I couldn't believe he missed Mom's funeral.

"Hey there, Sweet Cheeks," Bobby said as he pulled me into a hugged.

I laughed as I gratefully snuggled into his embrace. I missed Bobby a lot. I saw him when he would visit or when I would drive down to see him, when I could find him that is. But it wasn't the same. I wished all my brothers could stay with me forever. But I knew they were all grown and had lives. I wasn't about to take up the role as spoiled baby sister and beg them all to stay around for my sake. Bobby held onto longer than he usually would. I knew why. He had found out that I had seen Mom right after she had gotten killed. Jerry and Jack had done the same thing when I had first seen each of them.

"You still calling my that?" I asked Bobby as he finally released me.

"You still live up to your name," Bobby said and pinched my cheek to annoy me.

I had gotten the nickname Sweet Cheeks from being so cute and sweet as a little girl. The name had stuck and to my dismay, I was still cute even though I was now sixteen going on seventeen.

Bobby and Jerry started reminiscing about the days when we had been younger and gotten in enough trouble to make the name Mercer well known. Jack was smoking again. It didn't bother me as much as it use to. Now I would probably gasp if I didn't see him with a pack in his pocket.

"Your house is brick. I ain't gonna burn it down," Bobby said when Jerry brought up the time Bobby had burned down his tree house.

Jerry hadn't done badly for himself. He had a nice home, a wife, and two daughters. I couldn't say anything. I still lived with Mom. Or at least I had. I gave a big sigh at the thought and walked into Jerry's home to get out of the cold.

"I'm your Uncle Bobby," Bobby said to Jerry's daughters out back when he, Jack, and I had gone out there. "And this is Cracker Jack."

Jack closed his eyes momentarily at the nickname before turning to Bobby and saying, "Don't teach them that, man."

I just laughed silently to myself. I knew Jack hated that nickname, but had always put up with it like I had with the nickname Sweet Cheeks. As the girls brought up the subject that Bobby and Jack were white, I just listened as Bobby explained like to so many other people that Mom adopted us all. I looked away from my nieces and brothers as Green and Fowler walked over to us. Oh, damn! I really didn't feel like dealing with these two. Luckily, Bobby was still one to speak up and took care of Green and his partner while Jack and I watched with smiles on our faces.

I groaned in annoyance as Bobby and Jack shook me out of my sleep when we pulled up to Mom's house. I rubbed my eyes before following Jack out of Bobby's car. As we walked into the house, the guys started cracking jokes like they always did.

"Y'all ain't right leaving me out here in the cold like this," a deep voice said, causing me to jump and grip Jack's arm.

Jerry turned the lights on to reveal it was Angel, who sat in a chair across from me. He did that all the time. He was dark enough to blend in when the lights were off and scared the shit out of me when were younger.

"Yo, little brother. You asshole," Bobby said as he went to go give Angel a hug.

"Did you get your teeth whitened?" Jack asked Angel once he had hugged him. I had been wondering the same thing when I saw those new pearly whites.

"Hey, Angel," I said softly, hugging him tightly.

"Look at this. Our little brother is finally turning into a sister," Angel joked when he saw I was wearing a skirt.

The guys had always called me a brother instead of their sister because I had dressed and acted more like a boy growing up. What do you expect when you grow up around four brothers like mine? But ever since they had moved out, I had gotten more in touch with my girl side. I dressed a lot like Jack, receiving most of his hand me downs because they were the closest to my size. I added a little girl flavor to them though. I liked to mix and match this, having a little punk style. Right now I was actually wearing a black skirt with tights and boots. It had been the fanciest thing in my closet. I hated to dress up in fancy clothes.

Jerry unlocked the front door so we could all get into the house and get warm. I was the last to step into the house and found why all my brothers had stopped. It felt weird walking into this place without Mom here to greet us. Even when she wasn't home, we knew she would want to see us when she got back. But she wasn't out buying milk or going over to Jerry's house to see her grandchildren. I breathed in deeply as I leaned against the wall behind me and blinked quickly before I could shed one tear. What was wrong with me? I could keep up with my brothers all the time. But now, I felt girlier than ever.

"Sam?" Bobby said, knocking me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah?" I asked as I watched Jerry sit down on the couch.

"You and Jackie take your old room. Angel you take yours. I'm gonna sleep in Mom's room," Bobby said as he slowly walked up the stairs, me and Jack not far behind.

"You still don't have your own room yet?" Jack asked as he walked into my room, our room whenever he was here.

"I like it this way," I explained as I took off my coat and hung it on my headboard.

I sat on my bed as I watched Jack put his bag on the floor and his guitar case on his bed. He took his guitar everywhere. I couldn't talk. I loved my guitar just as much. It was right next to my bed where I had left it this morning after playing a few songs on it. Jack and I had always shared a room. Jack was the youngest boy and I was the youngest kid in the family, so Mom had wanted us to share this room since it was right next to hers. Neither Jack nor I had ever had a problem with that. We got along the best since we had the most in common. We both loved music and preferred the silence of our room to a club or bar any day.

"I got to get out of these clothes," I said as I grabbed a pair of pajama pants off of the end of my bed and stole a sweatshirt from jack's bag. "Be right back."

I was so uncomfortable in girly clothes, like skirts. It had to be my taste or I'd start squirming in five minutes. I walked out of the room, leaving Jack to unpack, and headed for the bathroom, passing Mom's bedroom on the way. The urge to cry again hit me, but the fact that Bobby was in Mom's room stopped me from crying like a baby. I inhaled and continued into the bathroom. It was getting easier to control when I really needed to cry and when I didn't. The pain would not go away quickly. I knew that. But I wished it would lessen up some more before I broke down in front of my brothers.

I sat on my bed a few minutes later with a sketch pad on my lap and a pencil in my hand. I was copying a picture that was on top of my sketchpad. It was picture of Mom and me. I had been six in the picture and it was the night of my first dance recital. I remembered I had slipped on the stage and fell. A woman had snorted and said I was crap compared to her daughter. I smiled, remembering Mom had been so mad and ended up fighting with the woman, calling her names I didn't even think she knew about. Bobby and Jerry had to drag her off of the woman, who never said another word about my dancing after that. I only became aware of the single tear rolling down my face when Jack cleared his throat. I quickly wiped away the tear as Jack played his guitar. I set aside my sketchpad and picked up the bowl of ice cream I was eating.

"You been crying here with Sweet Cheeks, you little fairy?" Bobby asked as he walked into the room.

Jack seemed to ignore him for a moment as Bobby sat down on the floor next to Jack's bed.

"Leave it alone, man," Jack said before putting his guitar aside.

Bobby asked Jack and me if we still liked to make a lot of racket on our guitars. I don't even know why he asked that. He knew the answer was yes. Jack and I adored our guitars. Even though I was more of into drawing than in music, I liked to still mess around with my guitar that Jerry had bought me two years ago.

"You still got these?" Bobby asked as he grabbed my wrist.

I looked down at the bracelets on each of my wrists. I had one from each brother. They had bought them for my birthday a few years ago and I loved them just as much as the necklace Mom had given me. My brothers' names were engraved into each bracelet. The brown one from Bobby, the pink from Jerry, the blue from Angel, and the black from Jack.

"You know I never throw anything out," I said as I dug back into my ice cream.

"Look at y'all," Jerry's voice came to my ears as I swallowed a spoonful of ice cream.

I spotted Jack lighting some pot out of the corner of my eye. I laughed. His addition was smoking. Mine was ice cream. Yum!

"Do you ever stop eating?" Bobby asked when he saw the ice cream.

"Shut up," I said with ice cream still in my mouth.

I had always had a very big appetite ever since I was small. The funny thing was I never gained much weight. I was just as thin as Jack and still had a decent sized ass with breasts and thighs to complete the package. Even though I was known as a Mercer brother, I had no problem getting a date.

"Where do you think you're going?" Jerry asked someone and I looked up to find Angel coming out of his room.

"I'm just going to go outside and get me some air," Angel answered.

Bobby, Jerry, and I all laughed as Jack gave a slight shake of his head. We all knew what he was up to. Angel didn't go out to get air. He went out to go get some ass.

"You can smell that ass from down the street, huh?" Bobby asked while still laughing.

"What are you talking about?" Angel was a worse lying than Jack.

"You know exactly what we talking about with La Vida Loca," Bobby said, smiling to himself.

"She got a boyfriend," Jerry cut in.

"She got hard dick in her right now. She screaming somebody else's name. And the last thing she's doing is thinking about your black ass," Bobby said, basically telling the truth.

Jack and I both burst out laughing at the same time as Angel frowned at all of us for not believing him. He wasn't over Sofie.

"I'm not going to see that girl. And I'm not!" Angel said in a tone, meaning that was the end of that conversation.

Less than an hour later Angel showed up running down the street in his underwear, his girlfriend Sofie right behind him. I rolled my eyes as Jack and I watched through our window as Angel and Sofie hurried into the house.

"That's Angel for ya. That boy never could resist a girl," I sighed as I went back to my sketchpad. 


	3. Trying To Move On

The next day, Jack and I watched from the kitchen as Bobby and Angel fought over if Sofie was staying in the house or not. I voted her out. Sofie was a crazy woman. Speaking of her, Sofie came down the stairs yelling at Bobby. Bobby and Sofie had never gotten along and it made me laugh to watched the two of them go at it.

"Sofie, would you just calm down!" I yelled in Spanish from the kitchen. I was the only person in the family who spoke the language.

"Stay out of this, Sam!" she yelled back in Spanish.

I snorted in an insulted way, causing Jack to turn around and grab me by the arm when I started to walk out of the kitchen to yell some more at Sofie.

"Forget her," Jack said and led me back over to the mashed potatoes I had been mixing up.

Soon everything went quiet, but I knew it wouldn't last. We were the Mercers. When you had the Mercers together in one place for more than a minute, there was going to be noise. I looked up when I heard Bobby ask Angel why he was starting something.

"What're you gonna do? Bite me?" Angel asked when Jerry threatened to do something to him.

Jack and I laughed as Bobby agreed that Jerry had some big teeth. I came into the living room to see what my brothers were up to when I heard loud thuds. Jerry and Angel were wrestling with each other. Bobby was sitting on the couch, cheering Jerry on. This was just like old times. These three fools messing around and getting into trouble while Jack and I made dinner. Mom never trusted the others in the kitchen after them destroyed her favorite bowl that Grandma had handed down to her.

"Bring out that bird!" Bobby called from the dining room.

"Chill, Bobby," I said as I brought out the turkey and set it in the middle of the table.

Once I took my place at the table, across from Jack, we all held hands. I grabbed Angel's and Jack's hands as Bobby said prayer.

"Amen," everyone said once he finished.

We all sat down and started filling our plates with food. I looked at each of my brothers as we ate. It felt sort of funny sitting here at the table with them once again. We hadn't all sat at the same table for a long time. Still, I liked it. I missed my big brothers. I saw Jerry and Jack a lot. I would visit Jack in New York ever month for about a week. And I saw Jerry a lot since we both still lived in Detroit. As for Bobby and Angel, I only saw them on special occasions, like Christmas or maybe my birthdays if they could make it. I wondered what would happen to my life now that Mom was gone. I had been the only Mercer brother still living with her. Now I had to have a life of my own to.

I put down my fork as I felt my stomach for once in my life feel full. I had only taken one bite of my food and I was already full. That was impossible or else I was really sick. I didn't eat a lot when I was sick. I then felt the weight of the silence in the room and picked up my glass of milk, gulping down a large amount. When I finally lowered my glass, I saw that each of my brothers were taking glances at Mom's chair, which was right next to me. I refused to look in that direction. I didn't want to face the fact that Mom and I would no longer have dinner together or talk about all the crushes I had on boys at school. I inhaled deeply to stop myself from crying right there at the table.

"Sam."

I jumped at the sound of Mom's voice. She wasn't there. I was hearing things. I picked up my glass of milk again and went to take a drink. I froze with the glass barely touching my lips when I felt a hand on mine. My eyes shot down to find Mom's hand over mine. I slowly raised my eyes to look at Mom's beautiful face as she smiled at me. I nearly dropped my glass as my breathing quickened.

"Don't worry, sweetie. You have your brothers," Mom said, knowing exactly what I had been afraid of all this time.

I didn't say anything. I just bowed my head forward so that my long dark brown hair fell over my face and hid my tears that stained my face. I felt Mom's hand on my face, as warm as ever. She lifted my face till I was looking at her again.

"Don't you go finding trouble," she ordered me.

I nodded and as fast as Mom had appeared, she was gone. I sadly bowed my head again as I put my face in my hands. I could feel Jack's eyes on me. But he didn't say anything as Bobby stood up. I ran the back of my hand over my face, making my tears disappear. I wouldn't have Bobby calling me a baby.

"To hell with this meal. I want to see some quick sticks and some tight passing," Bobby said and walked out of the room.

"I didn't come all the back here to play no hockey," Angel protested.

I, on the other hand, pushed my still loaded plate aside and got to my feet, needing to get out of the house and do something. I had no problem with a game of hockey, wanting to knock some guys around anyway. It would be fun to kick Bobby, Jerry, Angel, and Jack's butts at hockey. I was always the best skater since I was fast and smaller, so I could dodge some of the bigger guys' attempts to knock me down.

---

I laughed as I stole the puck from a guy I knew by the name of Tim. He growled, mad that he had just been shoved down by a girl half his size. Another huge guy got in my way and I spun quickly to avoid crashing into him.

"Whoa, that's cheating!" Angel yelled at me as I passed the puck.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I yelled, knowing he was just jealous of my skills.

"That's was an illegal figure skating move!" he explained, talking about my little spin.

"Oh, give it a rest, Angel!" I said with a roll of my eyes as I skated quickly after Jack, who had the puck now.

"That's my phone, man!" Jerry yelled as he rushed after Bobby.

I laughed, seeing that Bobby had just knocked Jerry's phone away with his stick. Jerry was pissed as hell to. My brothers were crazy. There was no denying that.

---

I quietly sat between Jerry and Jack as Mom's lawyer talked to us about financial matters. I wasn't listening, not really wanting to be there. I was only here because my brothers were here and I was my mother's daughter. I didn't look up from my finger nails until Jack spoke up.

"How much do we get?" he asked, earning a slap over the head from Bobby and a smack on the arm from me.

"Jack!" I hissed.

"What's wrong with you?" Angel asked.

"This is the contents of your mother's safety deposit box," the lawyer said as he set the box on the table. "I'll leave you to look through it."

Once he was gone, Bobby opened the box. I moved closer, trying to see what was inside. First, Bobby handed Jack some papers, than Jerry. He then handed the third set of papers to me, which I skimmed over before tossing them onto the table.

"What's wrong?" Jerry asked me as he picked up my papers.

"I know what they already say. I knew my parents. They were both assholes," I said, feeling slightly bad for saying that.

My birth mother hadn't been too bad. Her name was Denise Sanchez. Not many people knew I was part Puerto Rican. Mostly everyone thought I was just black from Jared Harris's, my dad, side. But Denise had been Puerto Rican and black. She had taken care of me till I was four. Jared wanted nothing to do with her once he found out she was pregnant with me. But every once and a while Denise would come to him for money to feed me and put clothes on me. But when I was four, she had made the stupid mistake of drinking while cooking. She had nearly burnt down our apartment with us inside it. After that, when she realized she was not the best mom in the world, she sent me to live in a foster home. Mom found me less than a year later after I had moved from several foster homes, to many families, back to another foster home.

"Here we go," Bobby said as he took some money out of the deposit box.

We all stood up at the sight of the money. I was crazy about money and my eyes never left the money as Bobby passed three bills to Angel and Jerry. I frowned and shook my head when he only gave me one because I was his baby sister.

"Only one?" I asked before saying the next word under my breath. "Cheap."

"What about me?" Jack asked when Bobby gave him nothing.

Bobby shook his head before reaching into the box and taking out one of Mom's old necklaces and giving it to Jack.

"That will look good on you," Bobby said as Jerry and I laughed at the look on Jack's face.

"Come on. I want to show y'all something," Jerry said as he put on his coat.

---

Jerry had brought us to a very broken down building that I would have torched in minute if it wasn't Jerry's dream. I had to do all I could to hold myself back from pick pocketing Jack and stealing his lighter to light the place on fire.

"Jack!" Jerry said in annoyance when he spotted Jack peeing on the floor.

I snickered, thinking I would have done the same thing I was a guy. If you wanted to take a piss, this was the place.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Is this the master suite? Am I making the property value go down?" Jack joked as he zipped up his jeans.

I laughed and shook my head as I looked around the place again. Jerry had some imagination. Maybe that was why he was the most successful out of all of us. Still, when you took a good look at this place it makes you wonder what exactly goes on in that mind of his. I cracked a smile at the thought.

Later on that night, I had to flirt with some guys at a bar to get in with my brothers. I had a gift for using flirting and being very girly at the right times.

"I still don't get how you got in here when you're only sixteen," Jerry said as he picked up my drink to make sure it was Pepsi.

"Almost seventeen. And you're my brother, so of course you wouldn't," I said as I took my drink back.

I watched in silence as Bobby and Jerry started fighting over what had really happened to Mom. Bobby had it in his head that something was up while Jerry, as usual, kept insisting to let the police handle the investigation. Oh please. The police never got anything right. And al the cops in Detroit weren't worth shit. Most were lazy and the others were dirty cops. Hell, if you wanted better cops, then you could just come to us. Oh god! At the thought, I looked at Bobby. He had that look in his eye. We were going to start some shit tonight, I just knew it.

---

"That's loaded, little brother," Bobby said to Angel as he cocked the gun Bobby had just handed him.

"You carry the gas," Bobby told me as he handed me some gasoline.

"We're gonna do the gas thing?" Jack asked Bobby and took out a cigarette.

"Yeah, we're gonna do the gas thing," Bobby mocked in a voice filled with sarcasm. It was the voice he use to use to make fun of me because when I was little I use to have one of those squeaky voices.

"Oh shit," I groaned, getting Bobby's attention.

"Calm down, Sweet Cheeks. I haven't lit you on fire in years. And that was an accident for the last time," Bobby said with a roll of his eyes.

"Oh, yeah? Well, you won't be saying it was an accident when I kick your ass if you burn me again," I said, rubbing the scar on my shoulder from where Bobby had burnt me about six years ago.

"Let's go," Bobby said before closing the trunk.

I can remember the first time we did the gas thing. I had been ten at the time. It was actually also the first time I found out anything about what had happened to Jack before he had come to Mom.

_**(Flashback)**_

_**My brothers and I all sat outside of an old abandoned house. We had been there for about ten minutes, waiting for the guy Jack had described to us. That night Jack had come home with a torn shirt and trying his best not to cry. My brothers had ended up kicking me out of Jack's and my room to talk. As always, I sat right outside the door, listening in on the conversation. From what I heard, Jack had been walking home from a friend's house and had gotten jumped by some punk outside of this very house. I couldn't believe it when I heard the pervert had almost raped Jack. But luckily Jack had gotten away only with a ripped shirt. Now, after Bobby damaged my half of the room in rage, we came to the abandoned house and waited for this piece of shit to come back.**_

"_**I'm gonna light his dick on fire. He won't be able to touch another kid after that," Bobby said and punched his left hand with his right fist.**_

"_**Calm down, Bobby," Jerry said and sat down on a trashcan.**_

"_**Calm down? Jerry, did you hear what this bitch tried to do to Jackie? And Jackie's only fourteen!" Bobby yelled, pacing to stay calm while we waited.**_

_**Jack sat next to me on the fence I was sitting on. He didn't look too good. He didn't want to be here, but Bobby had made him come. I still had a hard time believing what I had heard my brothers talking about at home. I knew they had all had bad lives before Mom. But this was just so hard to take in.**_

"_**There he is," Jack said as a guy in a stained gray coat walked into the abandoned house.**_

"_**Let's go," Bobby said and he took off running.**_

_**Jack and I jumped down from the fence as Jerry got of the trashcan and Angel was right behind Bobby. I wanted to catch this guy to after hearing what he had done to Jackie. No one hurts my brother and gets away with it.**_

"_**Oh shit!" I heard the guy curse when he saw us run into the house.**_

"_**Jerry, you and Jack go left. Angel, you and Sam go right. I'll keep going straight after this punk," Bobby said and ran two steps at a time after the guy.**_

"_**Come on, Sam!" Angel said and grabbed my arm to pull me down a hall to the right.**_

"_**What are we doing?" I asked as Angel panted, already out of breath.**_

"_**We're going to meet in the middle and box this punk in," Angel explained and hurried up a staircase.**_

_**Once we got upstairs, I heard Bobby shouting, "Stay down, you fucker!"**_

**_Angel and I found that Bobby, Jerry, and Jack had cornered the guy we were chasing in a bedroom down the hall._**

"_**Look who's pinned down now, jackass!" Bobby yelled, his face turning red because he was so furious and crazy right now.**_

_**The guy on the floor couldn't be any older than twenty. He was taller than Bobby was, but Bobby had muscle and strength on his side.**_

"_**Did you mess with our little brother?" Jerry asked and pointed to Jack.**_

_**The guy looked at each of us, as did many people when they found out we were related.**_

"_**I didn't touch him," the guy said as he panted. I couldn't tell if he was lying or not.**_

"_**That true, Jackie?" Bobby asked Jack, already knowing the answer.**_

_**Jack slowly shook his head as he stared down at the man on the floor. I don't believe the guy had had the chance to rape Jack. But judging by from the bruises on my brother's arms and face, this jerk had roughed him up a bit.**_

"_**He get in your pants, Jackie?" Angel asked.**_

_**Jack moved around uncomfortably at the question.**_

"_**No," Jack admitted softly.**_

_**I sighed with relief. I knew how this kind of stuff scared Jack. This piece of shit on the floor had gotten lucky.**_

"_**But he did get my pants half way down and kissed me," Jack mumbled quickly, ashamed to admit the truth.**_

"_**He what!" Bobby shouted before kicking the guy in his ribs and I heard cracking.**_

"_**Jackie, take Sam back to the car," Jerry said, not wanting Jack or me to see what they were about to do.**_

"_**Come on, Sam," Jack said and took me by the hand.**_

_**I watched as Angel started pouring gas on the guy on the floor as Bobby took a lighter out of his pocket. I tried to watch more, but Jack pulled me out of the room.**_

_**When we finally reached the front door, I looked up at the window of the room we had been in. It was now lit up with a red and orange light I knew to be fire. Next, I heard screaming and the sound of running footsteps. A minute later, my brothers came running out and looked up at the house that was now burning down, with the pervert inside.**_

"_**The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire! We don't need no water! Let that motherfucker burn! Burn! Burn, motherfucker, burn!" my brothers sang as they waved their hands in the air.**_

"_**Ow!" I screamed as a piece of wood that was on fire fell off the house and hit my shoulder, setting it on fire.**_

"_**Shit!" Jack cursed and patted out the fire.**_

"_**Come on, Sweet Cheeks. Let's get you home and check that out," Bobby said and picked me up as he ran back to his car.**_

_**I stared with wide eyes at the burning house as we ran home. Mom had asked how I had gotten burned when we arrived home later that night. Bobby had just made up a story about how I got to close while he was messing around with his lighter. Mom didn't believe us of course, but she didn't ask questions either. She had just wrapped my burn and gave me a cherry popsicle to make me feel better. But I would never forget that night. That was the night I had really learned what it took to roll with my brothers.**_

_**(End of flashback)**_

Once inside of the small building, Bobby and Angel pinned a guy to a chair, pouring gas on him and threatening to light him on fire like they did with everyone they did this to. I can't even count how many times we did this when we were younger after that one night. That's when I noticed a guy about twenty one standing behind me.

"What the hell you looking at?" I asked, the anger clear in my voice when I saw it was my ass he was looking at in my tight jeans.

"A hell of a lot, baby," he said with a smile as he moved closer to me.

"Boy, back the hell up or I'll make you!" I yelled at him, ready to mess him up.

"I normally wouldn't hurt a girl. But, baby, I know how to fight," he said, expecting me to be impressed.

"And I know how to kick your ugly fucking ass!" I said as I lifted my leg and kicked his chest with my boot.

He flew back and landed on top of a girl sitting on the couch behind him. I turned back to see what my brothers had gotten out of the guy they had cornered, only to find Angel and Jack staring at me as if I had lost my mind.

"What?" I asked, as if I didn't just kick a guy for checking out my ass.

"Baby sis may still be a bro after all," Angel chuckled before going back to helping Bobby interrogate the guy sitting in the chair.

I was no joke when it came to guys treating me right. I didn't take any bullshit like my mom. Everyone said I was just like her at times. And I bet when she was younger she didn't take it when boys checked out her ass either.


	4. Killing the Killers

The day after, we stopped by the store Mom had been shot in and a man we ran into when we got there decided to let us see the tape from the security cameras that had been put up a few months ago. I stood next to Angel and Jack as I watched the screen of the tiny TV. I watched from when two thugs came busting through the front door with guns to when they had found Mom hiding. Just as Bobby was saying as we watched, the two guys had the money. Why didn't they just leave? I could feel something on my face as I watched as one of the thugs came down an isle and pointed his gun at Mom. I was crying again and I knew why. I knew they were going to shoot her. I could already feel it. I could remember the sight of Mom's still and lifeless body lying in a pool of red. I could remember that horrible smell blood that filled the air. It made me sick to my stomach. The next thing I knew I was watching as the thug filled Mom with bullets. Jack exhaled sharply as he turned away from the screen and walked to the other end of the store, tears running down his face. My breathing quickened as I felt my legs get heavy and I crouched down, feeling the need to get off of my feet as I tried to keep from crying harder than what I already was. Why would anyone want to kill Mom? She was the sweetest woman in the world and wouldn't hurt anyone.

A few minutes later, once we had all built up enough anger to overpower our sadness, we left the store, all ready to start kicking some serious ass to find who killed our mother.

"That was an execution. They set Mom up. They set her up," Bobby said through gritted teeth as we hurried down the street towards the gym. "Come on."

We quickly got to the gym, walking in on a basketball game. I wonder what Bobby had in mind. What was I thinking? Bobby always did the same thing all the time. He winged it.

"We're always winging it," Jerry sighed when Bobby told him that was the plan.

"We're going to get killed," Jack said behind me, stating the obvious.

"What you mean 'we', white boy?" Angel asked, glancing at Jack.

I chuckled before crossing my arms and watching Bobby walk right into the middle of the basketball game. Soon, the Bobby I knew was pulling out his gun and demanding answers more than asking nicely. As Bobby and Jerry worked with the guys on the court and Angel went off somewhere, a black boy not to much older than me stood up in the crowd and hurried to get out of the gym. He was in too much of a hurry for my taste. I tapped Jack's arm, but he had spotted the guy to.

"Come on," I said as we ran across the gym to catch up with the boy.

I pushed open the side door the kid had run through and Jack followed me. Right outside of the door we saw the kid.

"Hey, kid!" Jack yelled and the kid made a run for it.

I took off after him, running pretty fast for a girl in high heel boots. Jack was right beside me, ready to help me pin this kid down if we had to.

"No running in the halls!" Jack yelled at the kid, making me laugh.

I groaned though when I saw the kid was almost to the door. We weren't gonna make it. He was going to get away. But then something I didn't expect happened. When he tried to run out the door, he wasn't able to push it open and bounced back right into the arms of Jack and I. Perfect or what? Ha!

"Get off me!" the kid yelled as he struggled to get away from me and Jack, but we had to good of a hold on him.

I looked up when the door the kid had tried to go through opened and Angel walked in. Oh, so that's where he had disappeared to.

"You got something to tell me, youngster?" Angel asked the kid as he continued to struggle. "Jack, go get Bobby and Jerry."

"You got him?" Jack asked me.

"Yeah, I got this punk," I said with a smirk and slapped the boy over the head when he made to kick me in the leg. Like I said, I don't take crap from men.

Angel and I pinned the kid to a wall as Jack hurried off to stop Bobby and Jerry before they really started something in the gym.

"What's your name, kid?" Angel asked the boy, who had finally calmed down.

The kid kept his mouth tightly shut, but that was fine with me. I knew him anyway. He went to my school and had actually asked me to a school dance once.

"Hi, Keenon," I said and smiled when Keenon went wide eyed as he stared at me.

"Samantha Mercer?" he stuttered once he recognized me.

"I like Sam better. You remember that. But, yeah, it's me," I said.

I turned when I heard my other brothers coming back. Jerry stood on one side of Keenon with Angel while Bobby, Jack, and I stood on the other side. He wasn't going anywhere.

"What's his name, Keenon?" Bobby asked him once he was face to face with the boy.

Keenon knew he had no choice but to give us a name and sighed once before telling us the guy's name was Damian.

"He's my brother," Keenon admitted and I raised my eyebrows. I never knew he had a brother.

"No shit. These are my brothers," Bobby said as he pointed to us.

Keenon looked like he wanted to laugh as he glanced at each of us, but knew better than to do that with us all around him. A lot of people did that.

"No, dog, he's my real brother," Keenon said, a hint of laughter in his voice as he spoke.

"Yeah, these are my real brothers. This is Angel, I'm Bobby, this is Jack and Jeremiah," Bobby said and then pointed to me. "You might as well call Sam a brother to."

Keenon looked at me, as everyone did when they heard I was a brother and not a sister. I gave him my famous raised eyebrow, which made him look away and avoid making eye contact with me.

"We got something," Jerry said as he stared at a piece of paper.

"Don't worry, Keenon. We just want to talk to him," Bobby said, telling Keenon that we wanted to talk to his brother. But he didn't mention we might still hurt him.

"What is this? Aluminum?" Jerry asked as he checked out the jewelry around Keenon's neck.

"Shit doesn't even spin," Jack said before following Bobby out of the building.

"Knowing my brothers, Keenon, you got lucky today," I told him as Jerry, Angel, and I left to.

The last thing I said left Keenon frozen to the wall in fear. That was what the Mercers did best: Scared the crap out of people and soon beat up people till we got what we got what we wanted.

---

I decided to take small nap as we sat in Bobby's car, waiting for the so called witness of Mom's murder to show up. I laid my head on Jack's shoulder as he moved his fingers back and forth on the fogged up window next to him. I rubbed my legs, trying to keep them warm. Yeah, I was wearing tights, knee high socks, and boots. But that was the last time I wore a skirt out in the cold. Jerry had to leave because my nieces had gymnastics. I knew that. But I think he just wanted an excuse to leave so he wouldn't have to get caught up in this mess of trying to find Mom's killer. Jerry had changed a lot ever since he got married. I'm not complaining. He saved my ass from getting arrested many times. But I still wished he could have stayed with us.

"That's my hat!" Angel said when he saw I was wearing his favorite hat. "What have I told you about taking my stuff?"

"I've been wearing your clothes since I was little," I said and threw Angel his hat when he demanded it back.

"I was wondering where my red shirt went," Jack said and tugged at his shirt I was wearing.

"What do you have of mine?" Bobby asked, only joking. But I seriously was wearing something of his.

"Here," I sighed and removed his gloves from my hands.

"You stole my gloves?" Bobby asked and snatched the gloves from me.

"I always borrow your stuff. What is the big deal?" I asked before once again leaning against Jack and napping.

I had the bad habit of taking my brothers' clothes without asking. But they should have been use to it by now. I had always done it, for as long as I can remember. Wait till Jerry found out I took his vest he had left behind at the house.

"It's him!" I jumped when Jack suddenly said that.

I looked past him and out the window as Bobby and Angel all but leapt from the car with Jack and me right on their tails. I spotted the guy up ahead. He had the afro and sweatshirt the guy at the store describe to us. This had to be the guy. Bobby was the first to get to the guy and whipped out his gun. As soon as the guy saw the gun he ran into an elevator and frantically pressed the button to close it before we got a hold of him.

"Bobby!" I groaned; mad out him for his bad habit of taking out his gun at the wrong time.

"Why you always pulling out guns and shit?" Angel asked with equal frustration.

"Jack, Sam, stay here. Tell me where this stops," Bobby said before he and Angel took off up the stairs to try and catch up with this fool.

Jack and I never took our eyes off of the numbers above the elevator door. It went from four to five. For a moment I thought he had stopped at five. Then it switched to six. Come on, now. This guy had to stop soon.

"Six! It stopped!" I said and grabbed Jack's arm. "Come on."

We hurried to find Bobby and Angel. Angel looked tired as hell when we found him breathing heavily on the stairs. Bobby was still going, determined to catch the guy that had gone up the elevator.

"Six!" I yelled once I caught sight of Bobby.

Bobby stopped for a moment when he heard my voice and looked back.

"He stopped at six!" Jack told him just in case he hadn't heard me.

Bobby sighed and rolled his eyes when he realized the number of stairs he still had to go. Jack and I watched as Bobby and Angel continued running up the stairs, heading for the sixth floor. Bobby didn't trust Jack or me with a gun, so I guess we had to stay behind. Jack slowly walked up the stairs as I sat down and crossed my legs, patiently waiting, knowing Bobby wouldn't fail in catching Damion. I jumped when I heard gunshots, dogs barking, and Bobby yelling at someone.

A moment later I heard Bobby yell, "You're going down now!"

I watched as something black fell past the window next to me and I heard a loud thump, muffled by the snow.

"I think they got him," I said to Jack as he hurried back down the stairs.

After Bobby and Angel had come back down, we all headed outside to find Damion lying in the snow, holding his leg as he panted.

"Do you know why we're here, Damian?" Bobby asked as we all stood around Damian, who looked up at each of us in alarm.

"Come on, man. Call me an ambulance," Damian said through deep breaths.

"For my dog bites? I'll be okay," Bobby said as he looked at his arm. "Give me a name and I'll call 911."

That was a simple trade. If I were this dude lying on the ground at my feet, I would be taking that offer pretty quick.

"I didn't shoot no one," Damian said and took a moment to swallow to catch his breathe.

"Say what? Can't hear you, playboy. Not with all this wind," Angel said with a smile. "If we leave, ain't no one else gonna hear you out here either."

"It's gonna be a cold night," I informed Damian, trying to get him to spill a name.

"Ain't gonna make it far with that leg," Jack said and looked at Damian's leg.

I winced, able to see the bone through the skin. Man, that had to hurt. This dude was stupid if he didn't talk soon. I knew Bobby and Angel would leave his ass right where he was.

"Come on, man. I can't say nothin," Damian said, a pleading look in his eyes.

Oh, man! I was going soft. I actually felt sorry for the guy. I mean if I was lying there, I would want someone to call 911 for me to.

"Fair enough," Bobby said. "You're going to die right here."

"Yo, man! Come on!" Damian begged as Bobby and Angel walked off.

Jack slowly followed our older brothers, not sure if he felt right for leaving this guy here. Damion turned to me since I was the last one standing next to him.

"Help a brother out, girl," Damian pleaded and grabbed my leg.

"Sorry. Unless your last name is Mercer, you ain't no brother to me," I said and pulled my leg out of his grasp before hurrying after my brothers.

I could hear Damian's calls for help as I glanced over my shoulder and looked at him. I couldn't help him. I would be betraying my brothers if I did that. Besides, he was a liar. He was only paid to see Mom's murder and lie about it.

"Turn around, dick," Angel said to Jack, who had been glancing back at Damian to.

"What are you looking at?" Bobby asked me as he turned me away from Damian. "Come on."

We all walked back over to Damian and Bobby once again asked for a name. This time Damian knew we were serious and cracked like so many people had before him.

---

Continuing our search, I followed Bobby, Angel, and Jack into the 'Casino' restaurant. Something was going to go down very fast in here. If Bobby didn't kill these guys then I would. These were the dicks I had seen in the car that night Mom had been shot. I had been right there and let them get away. But they sure as hell weren't getting away tonight with four of the five Mercer brothers around. We were looking for a guy with a goatee. That was the main killer I wanted to find. He was the one that had shot Mom.

"There he is," Jack said as he tapped Bobby.

"Where?" Bobby asked, looking around.

I found the guy to. He had one of those goatees that were in a long braid, hanging down his chin. Easy to spot.

"I see him," Bobby said and reached for his gun. "Come on. Let's go."

My hand found my trusty knife that I had tucked into my boot. A girl has got to keep herself safe, you know. Suddenly, gunshots sent all of us ducking. They had spotted us.

"They're getting away!" I said as we ran to catch the two bastards that had escaped out the back door.

I slipped past people in the restaurant easily while my brothers fought their way through. I rushed outside after the two killers, Jack behind me. I don't know when Jack had grabbed Bobby's gun, but he fired at the killers as their tires squealed in the haste to get away in their car.

"You go, girl," Bobby said to Jack as he and Angel finally made it outside.

"Nice shooting, Jack," I said as I put my knife away.

"Let's get these motherfuckers," Bobby said and ran to his car, closely followed by Angel, Jack, and I.

I held on for dear life as Bobby hit the gas and sped after the killers at full speed. He was crazier than ever and I had the bad feeling he might actually get us killed this time.

"You gonna get these guys before you kill us?" I growled at Bobby as Jack and I were thrown from one side of the car to the other.

"Sit back and put your seat belt on, Sam," Bobby ordered as if I was a little girl again. "You to, Jackie."

I ignored him as Angel rolled down his window and started firing some shots at the killers' car up ahead. The next thing I know, I'm jumping out of my seat top grab Angel before he goes flying out the window.

"Bobby, let's just stop the car. Bobby, let's stop," Jack tried to talk some sense into Bobby, but as usual, Bobby didn't listen.

"Shut up, Jack," Bobby said as he sped up a little bit more.

I squeezed my eyes shut and gripped Jack's arm tightly as Bobby slammed our car into the killers' car. I watched with wide eyes as the car flipped and rolled down the street before coming to a stop upside down.

"Oh my god!" I laughed and whistled at Bobby's work.

Bobby brought the car to a stop and shut it off. Once he was out of the car, I got out and followed him along with Angel and Jack to finish off the guys who had killed Mom.

"Jackie, Sam, wait here," Bobby said and put up a hand to tell us to stop.

Jack and I both stopped running and came to a halt as Bobby and Angel continued forward to the car that lay upside down. I had no problem with staying behind. I was still jumpy from the car ride and didn't need anymore excitement for the night. Jack and I watched through the snow falling around us as Bobby and Angel dragged the two killers from the car and started punching them.

"Who sent you?" Angel asked the guy that he currently was banging his head against the door of the car.

I heard grunts, moans, and cries of pain coming from the killers as my brothers continued to rough them up. I felt slightly uncomfortable watching this. Usually, whenever my brothers would want to beat the crap out of someone, I would have to leave or turn away till it was over. They had never actually done this kind of stuff in front of me and, for the record, I didn't exactly like it. Jack stood next to me, looking just as disturbed by the sight of what our brothers were doing. I couldn't blame him with his past and all.

"You fucked with the wrong lady!" Angel yelled as he got one last good kick in.

Both he and Bobby backed up, raising their guns and aiming them at the two killers. I nearly jumped out of my skin as the gunshots rang through my ears and I turned away from the sight before me. I don't know what was wrong with me. It wasn't like I hadn't heard gunshots before. On the other hand, I had never seen my brothers kill before.

"Sam, come on." I jumped when Bobby suddenly appeared at my side and grabbed my arm, pulling my back towards the car.

Bobby let me get in before climbing in himself and starting up the car. Jack got in on Angel's side and dropped into the back seat beside me. I could see he was more shaken up than I was, but I didn't say anything as I crossed my arms and sat back in silence for the ride home. I always knew my brothers were completely capable of killing and had killed before. But it was just bothering me a bit to actually see them do it. What would Mom say if she were still here? I didn't even bother to think about it as I laid my head on the window beside me and tried to get some sleep, the best way to clear my head.

As soon as we got home that night, I headed to the bathroom and locked the door. I threw my leather jacket to the floor and stood over the sink, gripping the sides tightly. Why did those guys have to run? Why couldn't we just have finished them when we first saw them? There just had to be a car chase. At the thought of a car going over the speed of sixty, I ran over to the toilet and threw up my entire stomach. I panted, everything going dizzy. I'd hate cars if I didn't love them. Memories flooded back as I sat on the floor, wiping my mouth with a towel.

I remembered the day I lost my sister as if it was a movie playing in my head over and over again. We had only been five years old at the time. Sydney and I had been double dutching in the park that day. We were some of the best double dutchers around. Since we were twins, we knew each other's moves by heart and could jump perfectly at the same time. But something had taken Sydney's mind away from me. She probably saved my life that day by not paying attention. As Sydney shoved me to the ground, I saw a bullet cut through the air and hit a nearby building. There was a drive by shooting going on and Sydney had spotted the three cars speeding past the park.

"Sam, come on," Sydney had said as she took my hand and pulled me along as she ran.

I hadn't had time that day to figure anything out. The whole thing had confused me. The world rushed by as Sydney continued to drag me after her. All I remember was Sydney telling me to keep running and that we would be okay. She had lied. We wouldn't be okay. Sydney yelled at me to keep going as the three cars sped after us and the rest of the kids running from the park. As the cars got closer and closer the more things got confusing. As we started to cross the street, I skidded to a speedy halt, gripping Sydney's hand hard to make her stop to. But she was stronger than me and kept running. I yelled at her to stop, telling her that the cars were coming to fast. But she said we would get shot if we didn't keep running. I lost my hold on her hand, feeling like I had lost half of my life the second I released her. I screamed at her as she ran, leaving me behind. Sydney realized half way into the street that I was no longer with her.

"Sam, run!" she screamed and hurried back to get me.

I turned when I heard tires squealing loudly. They were coming way to fast, smoke coming up from the tires. Sydney wouldn't make it.

"Sydney, go back!" I screamed at her, warning her to stay away from me.

"Sam, get over here!" Sydney shouted, not hearing my screams over the sounds of the cars and bullets.

The next seconds always went in slow motion for me whenever I thought about them. I screamed and fell onto the street as I watched the front of one of the cars hit my big sister. Sydney bounced right over the roof and dropped to the street right behind the car as it sped off.

"Sydney!" I screamed and tripped several times when I tried to get to my feet.

I rushed to Sydney's side and rolled her over. Even a five year old knew what a dead person looked like. I knew, but I didn't want to believe it. I don't remember how long I sat in the middle of the street that day, cradling Sydney in my arms. But I would never forget how Sydney's body got cold against my body or how her blood soaked my clothes. I think because of that day, I'm probably the safest driver in Detroit. Bobby called it grandma driving. He doesn't know. I never told any of my brothers. They all knew about Sydney, but they don't know how she died. Angel had his suspicions. Jack had figured some of it out to, having watched me closely the first time I drove with him in my car. And every time I drove to visit him, I would be extremely stressed out after a long drive. After tonight, I don't know if I would get behind the wheel of a car for a long time. Every time I did start up my engine, I would imagine Sydney sitting next to me, telling me everything would be okay. Once again she was lying. It would never be okay. She was my twin sister. She was half of me. Now that half was gone and would never come back. An hour later, I finally left the bathroom. When I went to get ready for bed, I found Jack sitting on his bed, once again playing his guitar. Something was bothering him to. I knew the look. And when he looked up at me, he saw the same look on my face. It had always been like this. Neither of us had to say a word. We just understood each other in looks. I smiled as did Jack before I changed into my pajamas and got in bed.

"Sam?" Jack said and I turned around to look at him.

"Yeah, Jackie?" I asked. I never called him Jackie unless I was hurting and wasn't paying attention.

"I heard you in the bathroom," Jack confessed, not looking up from his guitar.

"You always do. But you never ask questions," I said, having heard Jack outside of the bathroom a couple of times when I had freaked out. "Thanks for that."

Jack nodded, before directing his attention back to his music. I turned towards the wall, my back to my brother, and stared at the sketches I had hung up until the soft music from Jack's guitar calmed me and caused me to drift off to sleep.


	5. Evelyn's Boyfriend

The next day, Green and Fowler stopped by. As usual, they thought we were part of some crime. This time, of course, we actually were. Something Green had said got my attention. He said if we kept knocking on the devil's door someone would eventually answer. I had to agree with him. We had gotten away with a lot of stuff as kids. But Detroit had changed.

Later on, we decided to search the apartment of one of the shooters Bobby and Angel had killed last night. Angel ended up not being able to come, because Sofie started whining about some dinner she and Angel were suppose to have together.

"Find anything?" Bobby asked as we searched the apartment.

"Camera," I heard Jack say as I got on my hands and knees to check under the couch.

"Sam, what about you?" Bobby asked just as I stood back up.

"A gun," I answered as I spun the gun I had found underneath the couch.

"Let's go," Bobby said and Jack and I followed him as he walked out of the apartment.

---

When we got home, Bobby went through some guns he had taken from the apartment while Jack and I checked out the pictures on the camera he had found. A sound came from the living room, prompting Bobby to aim a gun that way. It turned out to only be Jerry. But the look on his face, I could tell he wasn't too happy with us.

"What are y'all doing?" he asked when he spotted the guns on the table.

"Hey, Bobby," Jack said and handed him the camera.

I moved closer to see what he had found. The shooters had been tracking Mom all right. The camera was loaded with pictures of her.

"Hold up," I said and pressed a button to go back to the last picture.

It was a picture of Mom and her lawyer. I thought he barely even knew her.

"That's that lawyer guy. That shit head said he only met her once, Bobby," Jack said and frowned at the picture.

I turned around when I heard a door close. Angel walked into the house, stopping beside me, his eyes on Jerry.

"Where have you been? I've been trying to call you all day," Bobby said to Angel.

"I've been following up new leads," Angel said, once again looking at Jerry.

Jerry looked down as if embarrassed. I frowned as I glanced between my two brothers. What was going on between those two?

"Let's go check this lawyer out. Jerry, you coming with us?" Bobby asked and picked up his coat.

"Yeah, don't you want to find out who killed Mom?" I asked as I grabbed my jacket off of a chair beside me.

"Of course I do," Jerry said to my relief.

"Then let's go. Stop bullshittin," Bobby said as he and Jack walked out the back door.

I quickly followed, Jerry behind me.

"Somebody's got to look after y'all clowns," Jerry mumbled.

"Who you calling clowns?" I asked.

As I pulled my jacket on, I could hear Sofie and Angel fighting in the house. Sofie was mad because Angel was leaving her again. I swear, if I ever got like that when I got a boyfriend, I hoped the boy shot me in the brains to shut me up.

---

I rolled my eyes as Bobby broke one of the windows of the lawyer's house to unlock the door. That is one thing I hated about my brothers. They never listened to me when I had something important to say.

"I could have just picked the lock," I sighed as I walked into the house.

"Since when do you know how to pick a lock?" Jerry asked, shining his flashlight my way.

"You guys didn't teach me everything I know," I sighed and looked around the place.

I smiled as a small white dog ran up to me. I loved animals and quickly scooped up the dog before Bobby probably shot it.

"Ah, a little attack dog," I laughed and scratched the dog behind its ears.

"Hey, Bobby, check out Bradford's calendar," Jack called over from where he was sitting, going through a computer.

We all came over to see what he was talking about. As he had said, it was a calendar. Something useful had to be on it.

"You don't E.M. stands of Evelyn Mercer, do you?" Jack asked, pointed out Mom's initials on the calendar.

"Write this stuff down, Sam," Bobby said, handing me a pencil.

I picked up a pad and quickly scribbled down everything I read about Mom on the screen.

"Stop it!" I hissed at the dog as it tried to eat the paper I was writing on.

"He met up with her the night she died," Angel said. "Why would anyone meet up with their lawyer at eight o'clock at night?"

"Angel!"

At the sound of someone yelling, we all looked up and Jack quickly shut the laptop. I hurried over to the window and growled more than the dog I was holding when I saw it was Sofie making all the noise.

"Nice, your girlfriend's here," Bobby sighed, not happy at all that Sofie was here.

"She's insane," I said and shook my head as I watched Sofie stomp her foot in anger.

"She must have followed us here," Angel said, looking just as upset that his girlfriend had shown up.

"Well, go shut her up then," Jack said and stood up.

"Y'all come out here with me. This girl is crazy," Angel said and opened the front door of the house.

I followed him and it took all five of us to drag Sofie back to her car.

"Sofie, shut up!" Angel yelled.

"They lock people up for disturbing people like you did with your big mouth," Bobby said, wincing when Sofie kicked him.

"Don't start with me, Bobby!" Sofie growled and smacked him on the arm.

"Do you want us to call immigration?" Jack asked and ducked when Sofie tried to hit him.

"Sofie, get back in your car and go home," Jerry said as he pinned Sofie's arms down.

I spun around at the sound of a car engine. Oh no. Bradford was home already.

"Guys!" I said as I watched a car pull up the driveway. "Guys, look!"

"Excuse me," Bradford asked after he had rolled down his window. "What are you doing?"

I could tell he was scared and confused by the look in his wide eyes as he parked his car. Bobby pushed past me and opened Bradford's car door. He grabbed Bradford by his coat and dragged the man from his car. I got out of the way as Bobby pushed Bradford into the snow and lifted up his shirt.

"You lied to me, you old man. You said you didn't know my mother. You were the last person to see her alive," Bobby said and smacked Bradford hard on stomach.

Bradford jumped and yelped at the sudden action. I had to put a hand over my mouth to stop from laughing. I saw that Jack and Angel were trying their best not to laugh either.

"Bobby, just ask him the question," Jerry said, wanting to get out of here fast.

"No, I'm gonna do it again," Bobby said, slapping Bradford's stomach again. "And again, till I find out what I want to know."

"Alright!" Bradford shrieked when Bobby slapped his stomach for a third time.

I cleared my throat to quit my laughter as I listened to what Bradford had to say.

"I just felt so guilty," Bradford said and winced with embarrassment.

"Guilty for what?" I asked.

"Your mother and I were seeing each other socially," Bradford finally admitted.

I blinked and took a step back, not sure I heard Bradford right. He and Mom had been dating? Why hadn't I known about this? And since when did Mom start dating? The thought of Mom and Bradford kissing was enough to make me puke.

"I have some of your mother's night things if you want them back," Bradford said as Bobby helped him up.

I spun around to look at him and made a sound of pure disgust.

"I didn't need to hear that," Jack said as he walked off.

"Since when did I get old enough to hear this kind of stuff?" I asked, following him.

I still couldn't believe Mom had been dating Bradford. I shuddered when I thought of them getting busy. And I nearly screamed when I got a visual. That was just nasty! 


	6. Four Mercers Against One

The morning after, I stood in front of the bathroom mirror, combing out the knots in my wet hair. I was well aware of Bobby on the toilet and Jack in the shower. I had always shared a bathroom with my brothers, only having one in the house. And I wasn't shy either. I had just gotten out of the shower and stood in full view of my brothers in my bra and underwear.

"What are those?" Bobby asked, pointing to my breasts.

I snorted and said, "Do we need to have the talk again, Bobby? I can give it to you since Mom isn't here."

Bobby rolled his eyes before saying, "I mean, when did you get tits?"

"I'm almost seventeen, Bobby," I said and pulled my hair into a ponytail.

All my brothers were having a hard time dealing with me growing up. But what could I do? I couldn't stop growing just because they wanted me to stay the little baggy clothes girl that use to follow them around all the time.

"You shaking your ass in a video? What is this, a thong?" Bobby asked and picked at my underwear to say it was to revealing.

"No, it's regular women's underwear. Would you leave me alone?" I said and smacked his hand away.

"Bobby?" Angel called from the hallway.

"Yeah?" Bobby answered.

Angel walked into the bathroom, tugging at the back of my bra on his way in.

"Put some clothes on. There are men in the house," he said and threw a towel over me to cover me up.

"Really? I haven't seen any," I said and chuckled as I picked up my toothbrush.

"Hey, Bobby. You know me and Sofie did a lot of making up last night," Angel said, a smile coming to his lips.

I just rolled my eyes and started brushing my teeth. Of course I listened in. No matter what they were talking about, I had to listen in on my brothers' conversations. It was a little sister rule.

"I think I got a little rust on the tools down here," Angel said, causing me to turn around to look at him.

I turned back to the mirror quick when he opened his robe. Okay, I could easily handle sharing a bathroom with my brothers. But when they started showing off their little buddies downstairs, that was my limit.

"Angel, I didn't need to see that. I haven't even had my coffee yet," I said before spitting out the toothpaste in my mouth.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Bobby said to Angel as he pointed at the shower. "Ask the cock-ologist in the shower."

"How the hell would I know?" Jack asked. I laughed, only imagining the look on his face.

"You're the expert," Bobby answered.

Jack sighed and leaned past the shower curtain to check out what Angel was going on about.

"Rug burn," he answered quickly before returning to his shower.

"You'll live," Bobby joked as he read his morning paper.

Angel sighed with relief. I just chuckled, seeing his reaction in the mirror. That's what I got for having all brothers.

"Hey, Bobby. Jerry hasn't been straight with us about that redevelopment project," Angel said, suddenly getting serious.

I turned around and focused my attention on him. I could tell whatever he wanted to say was important by the look in his eyes. Was there something wrong with Jerry?

"Jerry got involved with some bad people. The city got on him about fraud and what not. They cut his loans off about a month ago. Technically, Jerry's really broke," Angel informed us.

"You think this had something to do with what happened to Mom?" I asked.

"No. I'm saying that it's something I think we should look into," Angel answered, looking really upset. "I need y'all to go down and visit this city official named Douglas. He'll know who Jerry got mixed up with. I'm gonna check on some other stuff."

I frowned deeply in thought and bit my lip as I thought of how it was even possible that Jerry could get mixed up with bad guys and go broke. It just didn't sound like Jerry. It sounded like Bobby and me. But that was another story. Jerry was always the one giving me money when I needed. Now that I thought about it, a few months ago when I needed to fix my car Jerry hadn't been able to give me the money. He had said I needed to get a job and pay for it myself. I had known something was up because Jerry never turned me down when I really needed cash.

"If we're going to see Douglas, then where are you going?" I asked Angel as he walked out of the bathroom.

"Why don't you just tell us what you know, Angel?" Bobby asked, not liking that Angel was hiding something from him.

"I know you need to stay your ass on that porcelain. This is going to require a little finesse. And given your prier reputation as a hothead," Angel said, nodding when Bobby frowned at the nickname 'Hothead'.

"I wrote fucking book on finesse," Bobby said angrily.

I laughed, causing Bobby and Angel to look at me.

"What?" I laughed as I pulled on a pair of jeans.

Angel just ignored Bobby and walked down the hall, Bobby still yelling after him.

"I'm coming with you, Angel," he said just as Jack got out of the shower. "Get me some toilet paper, Jack."

"Give me a second, will you," Jack said, wrapping a towel around his waist.

"I'll get it," I said and went to find the toilet paper.

I took my sweet time doing it to. Bobby was pissed with me, because I had giving Angel a chance to leave without Bobby by taking to long. I had planned it that way. Wherever Angel was going, he wanted to go alone. Like Bobby, I was curious to know where our brother was going. But unlike Bobby, I knew when someone wanted to be alone they wanted to be alone.

---

The meeting with Councilman Douglas didn't go so well. He was a stubborn man, who I thought was too fat to have the nerve to be stuck up. He didn't even give us a chance to talk to him before he made up his mind and ignored us. Fine by me. When Bobby tapped me side, I nodded and picked up the can of gas I had hidden behind the councilman's car. Just as Douglas realized we had broken into his car and flooded it with gas, I poured gas on the outside.

"Councilman, now I'm gonna light your ass on fire! You're gonna make me turn you into the black gingerbread man!" Bobby yelled as he walked up to the councilman's car.

Jack came up beside me and took his lighter out of his pocket. He quickly lit the cigarette in his mouth before handing it to Bobby.

"I'll have my little brothers here suck your burning dick," Bobby said, causing Jack and I to frown a bit. "Roll down the window."

Councilman Douglas quickly obeyed and said, "Victor. Victor Sweet."

"What about him?" Bobby asked as he handed the cigarette back to Jack.

"I don't have much to tell," Douglas said, stalling.

"Don't care. Get to talking, man," I said and took the cigarette from Jack.

Douglas started talking fast when I threatened to throw the lit cigarette into his lap. Bobby and Jack smiled, impressed with what I could. As I said, I didn't learn everything from them.

---

"What do you think he found?" Jack asked as we walked up to a bowling alley.

We were meeting up with Angel. Wherever he had gone, he had found something and called us up, telling us to meet up with him as fast as we could. I had a feeling it had something to do with Jerry. I just had that bad feeling in my gut.

"I don't know. But it's something big," Bobby said.

"How can you tell?" I asked and walked into the bowling alley.

"By the sound of his voice. I know my brother," Bobby answered as he frowned and pulled open my jacket. "Are you wearing my shirt?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said innocently and closed my jacket.

We found Angel sitting at the bar. He didn't look too happy. That wasn't a very good sign. I wondered what had his so upset.

"What's up, Angel?" I asked as I sat down next to him.

"Was that councilman helpful?" Angel asked.

"Oh, yeah. Real public server," Bobby said with a soft chuckle.

I reached for the beer Jack had just ordered, but he was quicker and grabbed it before I could. My brothers were so overprotective that it was sad. It wasn't like they didn't start drinking at my age.

"I was just going to have a little sip. Jeez," I said and just ordered a coke.

Bobby asked Angel if he remembered Victor Sweet. I frowned when Angel said he did. Usually everyone my brothers knew, I knew. But I hadn't heard of Victor Sweet until I almost burned Councilman Douglas. I turned my attention to Angel when he pointed out a guy bowling with his wife and kids. I remembered his as one of Jerry's friends from the union. His name was Evan. It turns out he worked for a guy named Victor.

"As in Victor Sweet?" I asked and raised an eyebrow.

"You guys are coming up with this pretty quick," Jack said and Bobby chuckled.

"We should have been cops," Bobby said and gulped down his beer.

Yeah, right. We were the Mercers. We'd get fired the first day on the force if we were cops. I should know. I got turned down for a job at a grocery store just because Bobby and Jerry had stolen from the guy when they were teenagers. The guy apparently still remembered that day clearly.

"Holy shit!" Jack said as he got to his feet, looking at something across the bowling alley.

I followed his gaze and gasped when I saw Jerry handing an envelope, probably money, to Evan. What was Jerry thinking? I may have only been sixteen. But I knew you didn't deal with gangsters.

"We'll find Jerry later," Bobby said and grabbed my arm when I went to go after Jerry as he left the bowling alley. "Come on."

Bobby walked off with Angel and Jack following him. I stayed behind and picked up the beer Jack had left at the bar. I smiled and tipped my head back to take a drink.

"I don't think so," Jack said as he came back and took the beer away from me before I could even get a good taste in my mouth. "Let's go."

"You're going soft on me," I sighed and put my hands on my hips.

Jack grabbed my wrist and pulled me after him to catch up with Bobby and Angel, who had just walked up to Evan. Evan's wife hurried to get their kids to put their jackets on, knowing we wouldn't stop from beating on Evan just because his family was there.

"Nice to see you boys," Evan said, glancing at me to say he was talking to me to. "We were just leaving."

"You ain't going nowhere. What were you talking to my brother Jerry about?" Bobby asked, his face serious and angry.

"Just saying hello. Me and Jerry go way back, from the union days. You know that, Bobby," Evan said, trying to stay cool.

"Angel tells me you're one of Victor Sweet's boys now," Bobby said, his temper rising.

"What are you thinking about, Evan? The dude's a punk," I said, crossing my arms.

"You've been gone a long time, fellas. Times change. You still live around here, Sammy girl. You how it is," Evan said, hoping he could get me on his side just because I was young.

Yeah, I knew things had changed around Detroit since my brothers had left. But that still didn't get Evan off the hook.

"What's in the envelope?" Bobby asked and pointed to the envelope in Evan's pocket.

"What envelope?" Evan asked, trying to be sneaky and lie to us.

""Oh, you want to play that fucking game with me right now?" Bobby growled, moving closer to Evan.

Angel, Jack, and I took a step forward to, ready to back Bobby up. I cracked my knuckles, loosening up my hands just in case we had to do something to Evan.

Evan glanced at his kids and asked, "Y'all gonna do this here?"

"Right here, right now," I answered simply and shrugged slightly.

"Give me the envelope and take a walk," Angel ordered, his face cold and hard. "Now!"

Evan glanced at each of us, knowing we would mess him up if he didn't listen. With a sigh, he removed the envelope from his pocket and handed it to Angel. Smart move, Evan.

"Go ahead, Evan. Take the kids home. We'll be seeing your ass again real soon," Bobby said. It sounded more like a promise. "Let's go."

My brothers walked away, leaving me behind with Evan. He looked at me, wondering what I was about to do to him. I looked him over and just shook my head.

"Pathetic," I sighed before turning away from Evan and following my brothers out of the bowling alley.

We better not find Jerry. What he was doing mad me so mad and I didn't know if I wanted to shoot him or beat him with my baseball bat. If we found Jerry, I might just go to jail for strangling my brother. This is, if Bobby didn't get to him first.

We sat outside of Jerry's house that night in Sofie's car that Angel had borrowed. I looked up at Jerry's bedroom window and found my big brother walking around his room. I really wanted to go up there and demand some answers. Jerry never hid anything from me. Or at least I thought he didn't. Why would he lie to me about this?

"That's it. I'm going to go in there and find out what he's up to," Bobby said angrily as he went to open his door.

Both Jack and I grabbed Bobby, knowing for a fact what our brother would do if he got his hands on Jerry.

"Bobby, chill," I said, having to keep my temper down to keep Bobby's down.

"Bobby, his family's in there," Jack reminded Bobby as he gripped Bobby's coat tightly to keep him in the car.

"Bobby, you're going to have to calm down," Angel was finally able to convince Bobby to keep his butt in the car and not set Jerry on fire for information.

"I'm calm. I'll be calm," Bobby lied, breathing heavily. I could tell he was getting more impatient by the second. "He thinks I'm an idiot. He thinks I don't know what's going on."

Angel took out his cell phone and quickly dialed Jerry's number, being sure to keep an eye on Bobby. I still couldn't believe Jerry, of all people, was broke and working with Victor Sweet, a gangster. And Jerry was always telling me not to get mixed up with gangsters. Man, did I have a load of things to say to him the next time I saw him. He was in for a rude awakening.

"He coming?" I asked Angel once he finished his phone call with Jerry.

"Yeah," Angel answered, glancing at Bobby, who was tapping on the handle of his door.

"Angel, let's get home before Bobby goes nuts," I said and Jack smirked.

Angel started up the car as I sat back and sighed, shaking my head. What was happening with our family? I wished mom was here. She could handle all of this stuff going on between us in about ten minutes. Bobby, on the other hand, could handle it in about two seconds with a shot gun. I feared for Jerry tomorrow. He had four of the five Mercers mad at him. One Mercer was bad enough. I just had to hope that tomorrow would turn out okay.


	7. Blood Stained Snow

I sat on the couch that morning with Angel and Jack. I kept silent as I sipped my cup of coffee. Today was going to be a bad day. Jerry would be showing up soon and the moment he walked through that door, the shit was gonna hit the fan. Bobby paced in the kitchen, being as impatient as he could possibly be. Angel was taking his frustration better. Sofie had something to do with that. I heard the two of them last night. Did they ever stop? Jack sat next to me on the couch, biting his lip nervously. He knew just as much as I did that something bad was going to go down today.

"What do you think Bobby will do to Jerry?" I asked, taking another sip of my coffee.

"I don't know. I know it will probably hurt though," Jack said and looked up when he heard the sound of a car pulling up.

"That's got to be Jerry," I said and listened as the back door opened.

A moment later, Jerry walked into the living room. He stopped when he saw the looks on our faces, wondering why we were all frowning at him.

"What?" he asked as he took off his gloves.

"You know what you did," Angel said, his voice dripping with disappointment.

I set my coffee on the table as Angel showed Jerry the money we had taken from Evan last night. Jerry's eyes went wide with shock before he looked mad.

"No!" he yelled and stomped his foot. "You don't know where you fucking went!"

"No, Jerry. You don't know where you went getting mixed up with gangsters," I said, trying not to sound angry, but not succeeding.

I was mad at Jerry. And I mean, mad enough to hit him. But Bobby beat me to it. Bobby came out of nowhere and delivered a hard punch to Jerry's jaw, causing Jerry to crash to the floor.

"What are you hiding, Jerry? If I found out you had something to do with what happened to Mom, I swear to god, I'm gonna kill you right here and now!" Bobby yelled angrily as he leaned over Jerry.

"Bobby, calm down," I said, noticing Jack tense up next to me.

"Shut up, Sam. Not now," Bobby said and glanced at me, telling me to stay out of this one.

Bobby and Angel yelled at Jerry some more before Jerry got sick of it and punched each of them to get them away long enough for him to stand up. I jumped, gripping my jumper tightly. I hated it when my brothers fought like this.

"I paid all of Mom's bills! How many years did I have to take care of her and Sam by myself while all of y'all were doing nothing?" Jerry shouted, furious with us for not trusted him. "And now you're gonna tell me I killed her!"

"Well, you paid Victor Sweet!" Bobby yelled, getting back to business.

"No, I didn't! That's how they shut me down!" Jerry yelled back, getting angrier by the minute.

"Wait, I thought the city cut you off, Jerry," Jack finally spoke up.

"Douglas? This is Detroit. Sweet owns Douglas," Jerry said, his voice getting softer now that he was talking to Jack and I.

Jack and I turned towards the door when we heard knocking. Both of us wanted to get out of this room fast, neither of us liking fighting when it came to our family.

"I got it," Jack said and quickly caught me by my jumper when I made to get up off the couch.

I nodded and let Jack answer the door instead. I sat silently, watching as Bobby, Jerry, Angel continued their argument. Suddenly, Jerry got so mad that he hit my cup of coffee off the table. I ducked and the cup shattered on the wall behind me.

"Hey!" I yelled, mad that stuff was being thrown at me. That was my move!

The longer I sat on the couch in silence, the more aware I became that I missed having Jack at my side. It made me feel safer. What was taking him so long anyway? All of a sudden, I heard Jack yell 'I will kick your ass' before I heard running. I quickly turned to look out the window and saw a freak in a hockey mask.

"Bobby!" I yelled over his shouts. "Bobby!"

"What, Sam!" he yelled, mad I had interrupted his fight with Jerry.

That's when he noticed Jack wasn't sitting beside me anymore.

"Sam, where's Jack?" he asked, scanning the room for our brother.

"Jack!" I yelled as I jumped to my feet and rushed for the front door, not bothering to answer Bobby.

Bobby quickly grabbed a gun before running after me, Jerry and Angel not far behind. I reached the door fast, but Jack wasn't there. I ran outside and found Jack chasing after that weird guy in the hockey mask. What was going on? Just then, the guy in the mask stopped and spun around, pulling a gun from his sweatshirt. Jack was so mad at him he didn't notice the gun as quick as I did.

"Jack, stop!" I shouted, gripping the doorframe.

I was too late though. Jack was too close. The guy had him right where he wanted him. I screamed and shook with horror as a gunshot rang through my head and I watched a bullet go through Jack's shoulder. Jack fell to his knees, gasping in pain.

"Jack!" I screamed as I jumped off the porch and ran to help my brother.

"Sam, come back!" Jerry yelled as Angel tried to grab me.

The guy with the mask aimed his gun at Jack's head, prepared to kill him. No! I wouldn't loose Jack. Not Jack.

"Jack!" I heard Bobby yell from behind me as I ran.

I reached down and yanked the knife from my boot. With all my strength, I threw it at the bastard aiming at Jack and hit in square in the middle of his chest. He dropped to the ground, dead I hope.

"Jack, come on," I said, finally paying attention to the van that had just pulled up and the guys flooding out of it.

Jack's face twisted in pain as I draped his arm over my shoulders and helped him to his feet. I ran for the house, forcing Jack to run with me. He was in pain, I know. But he was not going to die on me. Not today at least. Bobby fired madly at the guys chasing us. We weren't far from the house now. We could make it.

I screamed as I felt a burning pain in whole left arm that forced me to the ground, falling into the snow. A second later my arm became cold, the pain pulsating throughout my entire body. I gritted my teeth so hard I might break them. I had never felt pain like this in my life. When I remembered Jack, I pushed my pain aside and turned. Jack had fallen onto the snow beside me. He squirmed around in pain. That's when I saw that there was more blood on his shirt then there should have been from being shot in the shoulder. Oh, no! Jack had been shot in the back to. I took a hold of Jack's arms to calm him. But when you get shot in your shoulder and back you're not exactly calm, are you?

"Bobby!" I screamed right before Jack did.

"Hold on, Sam!" Bobby yelled, shooting another guy in a mask that was shooting at him.

I ducked, barely avoiding being shot in the head. What in the world was going on here? Was this Victor Sweet's crap? I turned back to Jack when I heard his breathing getting harder and louder.

"Jack, take a deep breath," I said, not really knowing what I was doing.

When I turned back to Bobby, I saw he was punching the living daylights out of some guy. And Angel had just jumped off the roof to stop another guy from shooting Bobby. I shot my head around when I heard tires squealing. The van from earlier was speeding right for Bobby.

"Bobby! Bobby!" I screamed, trying to get him to run.

"Bobby!" Angel screamed, noticing the van to.

Angel ran for Bobby, grabbing his arms and trying to yank him away from the guy he was punching on. Bobby, move you butt before you become the hood ornament of a van! I jumped in panic as Jerry's Mercury flew past me and slammed into the van, stopping it from running over Bobby and Angel. I looked at Jack when I heard him moan. His body was now jerking in the snow. He was having convulsions. I knew that wasn't good.

"Jack, talk to me," I said. "Jack."

Bobby dropped down next to me, Angel right behind him. Jerry showed up quickly and Sofie came running out of the house. I didn't care though. My thoughts were on Jack. It scared me the way he was jerking and I didn't know how to make it stop.

"Jack, look at me," Bobby said and took Jack's face in his hands.

"Come on, Jack, breathe," I said when I noticed he had not taken a breath in a long time.

"We need an ambulance!" Bobby yelled, hoping someone would hear him.

"Somebody help!" Angel screamed, looking around for help. "Call 911!"

"Jack," I said as I took his hand and gripped it tightly.

Jack gasped and blood flowed from his mouth. I cracked at that point. Tears fell from my eyes and I begged Jack to breathe. I couldn't lose him.

"I'm calling! I'm calling!" Sofie said behind me as she flipped her phone open and dialed as fast as her fingers could.

"Come on, Jack. You got to breathe," Bobby said, tears filling his eyes. "Don't you die on me, you little fairy."

Jack smiled at that, but I could tell he was just trying to be brave because Bobby was there. It was getting harder and harder for him to breathe. He had to breathe now or he would die.

"Jack, come on. Please breathe. You gotta breathe for me, please," I said through sniffles as I tried to stop crying.

Jack struggled to breathe as I ran a hand over his hair. Come on, he had to breathe. I would not lose Jack. I already lost my mother. I would not lose my brother, my best friend.

"Jack, breathe, goddamnit!" I screamed from panic.

I sobbed with tears freezing to my face as Jack's eyes closed and his body movements slowed. I spun around so fast I almost got whiplash. I could hear the sirens of an ambulance coming down the street. They had to hurry. Jack wasn't going to make it.

"Jack!" Angel gasped, making me turn around.

Jack had just coughed up the blood clogging his throat and taken a breath.

"Thank god!" I sighed with relief.

"Give him room to breathe, Sam," Jerry said when I hugged Jack close to keep him warm till the ambulance got there.

I sat up and looked behind me when I heard a door open. Whoever had been driving that freaking van was still alive and trying to escape. I don't think so. You don't try to kill one of my brothers and get away with it.

"Stay with Jack. Makes sure he keeps breathing," I said deeply as I released Jack's hand and ran across the street.

"Sam, where are you going?" Bobby asked me.

I quickly picked up a gun off the street and pushed the end of it into the head of the guy trying to get out the van. He froze, looking at me out of the corner of his eye.

"Who sent you? Victor Sweet?" I asked, ignoring the pain in my other arm.

"Yeah, it was Sweet," the guy said quickly, scared that I might actually pull the trigger my finger was wrapped tightly around.

I slowly lowered my gun. This guy wasn't Sweet. He wasn't the one I wanted to kill.

"Thank god," the guy sighed.

I shot my eyes back up to look at him. He didn't just say what I think he said. Did he say thank god? Did this piece of shit just say thank god?

"Thank god?" I asked and raised my gun again. "You killed my mother. And you better pray to god my big brother lives, you motherfucker!"

The guy winced at the rage in my voice. He may not have been Victor Sweet. But he was the closest thing at the moment.

"Oh, yeah. Thank Victor Sweet for this," I said before pulling the trigger of my gun.

The dead body fell out of the van and to the street where it belonged. I threw the gun away and ran back over to see how Jack was doing. He was still breathing, but his skin was turning as white as the snow and more blood kept getting clogged in his throat ever once and awhile. Where was that dang ambulance? As if on cue, the ambulance pulled up beside the five of us. Six if you counted Sofie. She led them over to Jack, half speaking in Spanish. I just rolled my eyes and translated. The paramedics lifted Jack onto a stretcher, with some trouble I might add. I had refused to let go of Jack, but Bobby had finally pulled me off of our brother.

"I'm his brother," Bobby said, knowing he wouldn't be allowed to come along if he wasn't family.

"I'm coming to. I'm his sister," I said as I climbed into the ambulance.

The paramedics wondered how it was possible for Bobby and me to be related, let alone be related to Jack.

"It's not that hard to believe," I hissed, not feeling like explaining anything.

As the ambulance pulled off, I took Jack's hand in mine. It was freezing cold against my skin, which was pretty cold itself. Jack just had to make it. I don't know what I'd do if Jackie didn't come out of this one alive. I just don't know.


	8. Crying In Anger

I hated hospitals. They made me nervous. And right about now, I was ready to go insane. As I sat in the waiting room at the hospital, I frowned deeply and growled in the back of my throat as my eyes moved back and forth, watching Bobby pace. He was driving me insane with this pacing. I was nervous enough already. And he wasn't helping.

"Stop with the damn pacing!" I yelled, not able to take it anymore.

"Sorry," Bobby apologized and ceased his pacing. "I'm just a little scared."

I gave a snort of shock and looked at Bobby. Did he just say he was scared? I had never heard him say that in the ten years I had known him.

"Don't act so surprised. He's my brother to," Bobby said and started his pacing again.

I groaned and rubbed my temples. I was to young and to cute to be this stressed. I was only sixteen for crying out loud. The staff was going to kick Bobby and me out of the hospital soon. We were driving them crazy. I had allowed them to bandage up my arm. But I refused to have x-rays until I knew Jack was okay.

I wiped the tears from my eyes, but new ones just replaced them. What was taking so freaking long? I needed to know something now! Bobby looked at my as I got to my feet and started pacing, gripping at my hair to keep my hands busy so I wouldn't end up punching something.

"And you just got on me about pacing," Bobby said, smirking as I stopped pacing and glared at him.

"Bobby, I'm not in the mood right now," I said, my voice cracking with sadness, causing Bobby to drop the sarcasm and hug me.

"It's gonna be alright, Sam," he whispered in my ear as I buried my face in his shoulder.

"Robert and Samantha Mercer?" a voice asked and I looked up.

Bobby released me, seeing that it was Jack's doctor. I had known Dr. Reid since I was a little girl. We Mercers gave him so much business that I think he was able to buy a mansion with the kind of money he got.

"This is us you're talking to, Reid. Stop with the full names," Bobby said.

"How's Jack?" I asked, cutting Bobby off.

"He received a bullet wound to his shoulder and one to his back. And there was some serious blood clogging in his lungs," Dr. Reid said and I bit my lip to stop myself from telling him to get to the point. Did I still have four brothers or what?

"But is he okay, doc?" Bobby asked, growing even more impatient.

"Oh, sorry," Dr. Reid apologized when he saw that Bobby and I were about ready to strangle him for information. "He's okay. He was in a great deal of pain. We gave him medication for that. But he'll be just fine."

I let out a sigh that I had been holding in for god knows how long. Jack was going to be okay after all. I swear, I was going to have a heart attack. Good thing we were in a hospital.

"Can we see him?" I asked.

"He's sleeping right now. But yes, you can see him," Dr. Reid said and pointed to a room down the hall.

I nearly ran him over as I hurried to get to Jack's room. I pushed open the door and stopped after taking only one step into the room, causing Bobby to run into me. Jack looked so weak and fragile as he lay in the hospital bed. Bobby had always said Jack was a little delicate, but I never saw him like that until now. The last time I had felt this bad for Jack was when his appendix erupted and he had to be rushed to the hospital. This was ten times worse of course.

"You're blocking the door, you know," Bobby said and moved me out of the doorway so he could come into the room.

"Bobby, I hate seeing him like this," I said, slowly following Bobby over to Jack.

I sat down in the chair next to Jack's bed and took his hand. I always felt better when holding Jack's hand. I had never let go of it for the first two years I had met him. It just didn't feel right when Jack wasn't at my side. The longest we had ever been apart was a month. Even though Jack was the little brother of Bobby, Jerry, and Angel, he was still my big brother. This was different for me. I was always the one getting hurt or ending in the hospital. Not Jack. I was usually the one lying in the bed while Jack sat next to me, holding my hand.

"Don't worry, Sam," Bobby said and I looked up at him. "We'll get Sweet."

I nodded, agreeing totally. I didn't even know Victor Sweet. But he had taken my mother from me and almost succeeded in killing one of my brothers. If I didn't want revenge before, I absolutely wanted it now. Neither Mom nor Jack deserved what they got. But Victor Sweet certainly deserved what he was gonna get. That was promise I was longing to keep.

---

"You're kidding me," I said as I followed Angel into the dining room.

"Nope. Green's dead," he said and took a seat at the table.

"No more Green to try and arrest me," I said and shook my head. "Even thought the man was a big pain, I'll miss him."

"I bet Fowler did it," Bobby said, his brows going down as he frowned.

"Of course he did it. He's a dirty cop and I heard he was the last to see Fowler right before he died," Angel told us.

"We have bigger problems than Fowler," Jerry said and picked up a picture of him and Camille off the floor. He was worried about her. It was written all over his face.

"I guess we'll be sending Mom some company," Angel said, glancing at the bag off guns we had on the chair beside me.

"We can't go to war with Victor Sweet. He'll just hire more and more goons until we're all dead. Or do I have to point out that Jack is in the hospital because of Sweet?" Jerry said, just having to make me feel bad about Jack.

"Don't do that, Jerry. Don't bring Jack into this," I sighed and ran a hand over my face. I needed my morning coffee, bad.

"I don't know what to do anymore," Bobby said, looking more sorrowful than I had ever seen him look. "I almost lost one brother. I'm not about to lose you guys."

I could understand why Bobby didn't want to risk our lives anymore. I felt the same way. Ever since Jack had been shot, I had been scared to even leave the house or let one of my brothers leave. Five minutes later I would just imagine them lying in the middle of the street in a pool of blood, dead.

"I got an idea," Jerry said, snapping his fingers. "We can take the rest of the money from Mom's insurance and pay Sweet to call off the dogs. He'll deal. He's a business man."

"I don't think so, Jerry. This is Detroit. I know guys like Sweet. You'll meet up with him. He'll take your money. We won't be able to find your body till the river thaws," I said, shaking my head. I may have been sixteen, but I was street smart. I knew what Sweet would do to Jerry.

"You guys are always taking chances. Take a chance on my idea. It'll work," Jerry said with a new kind of energy. He was determined.

I just shook my head. I didn't want to do this. Sweet would kill Jerry as soon as he saw him. I wouldn't lose Jerry instead of Jack now. I just wanted all of my brothers to be safe.

"Jerry!" I yelled, my fright getting the best of me. "I'm not going to lose you! I already lost Mom! I can't lose a brother! My heart can't take that!"

I quickly ran from the dining room, not wanting my brothers to see my tears. I was determined not to have my brothers label me as weak just because I was the youngest. It was hard enough trying to make myself extra tough so I wouldn't prove them right about being a scared little girl. I ran into my room, slamming the door behind me. I picked up the nearest thing and threw out my window. I had to throw something. I was mad and had no one to beat up, so throwing stuff was my next option.

"Sam!" I heard Bobby yell as he rushed into my room and grabbed my arm before I could throw whatever was in my hand out the window.

I inhaled deeply, calming myself down before I ended up punching my brother. And I don't think he would hesitate to hit back, not as hard of course.

"What are you doing?" Bobby asked, taking my sketchbook out of my hand.

Oh my god! I had almost chucked my sketchbook! I loved that thing.

"I'm okay, Bobby," I panted as I placed a hand to my head and swiped away the sweat that had come to my forehead.

"I'm not so sure about that. I just watched a psycho woman fling one of her favorite CD out the window," Bobby said, pointing to my Tina Turner poster.

I groaned, realizing I had actually threw out my Tina Turner CD. Man, what was wrong with me today?

"Sit down," Bobby said, taking me by the arm and making me sit on my bed.

"Bobby, I'm just worried," I said as I took my sketchbook back.

"Yeah, I saw," Bobby chuckled. "You done throwing stuff?"

"Yes, I'm done. I'm calm now," I said with a smirk as Bobby brushed a piece of my hair behind my ear.

"You miss Jackie, don't you?" Bobby asked, holding my hands.

I looked down at our locked hands and raised my eyebrow. Okay, what was going on?

"Are you on some drugs or something? You're being to nice," I said, pulling my hands out of Bobby's grasp.

Bobby laughed before saying, "Yeah, it's kind of weird, isn't it? I was just trying a new big brother routine."

"I like the old one better," I said and grinned.

"In that case, stop being spoiled and get your ass back downstairs to help us come up with a plan," Bobby said, pulling me to my feet.

I laughed and smacked him on the arm before hurrying downstairs to start talking with Jerry and Angel. Maybe Jerry's plan would work. I seriously doubted the plan. But I wouldn't doubt my brother.

---

I waiting nervously on the couch, looking out the window for Jerry. He was meeting up with Evan to see if we could make a deal with Victor Sweet. What was taking him so long? I had one small nerve left. And if anyone worked it, I had no chance of getting through this whole Victor Sweet event. It was wrong for a girl my age to be this worried and stressed out. I glanced at Jack, who sat next to me. He had just been released from the hospital. I had caused so much trouble up there that I had gotten them to let Jack out early. I missed having Jack around. Our room had been so lonely without him.

"You stole my jacket? I'm not dead yet," Jack said when he saw I was wearing his jacket instead of mine.

"I was cold. It was the only thing around," I lied giving Jack my cute smile that got me out of almost anything.

"Uh huh. I bet," Jack said, not fooled by how adorable I was.

I smiled, looking back out the window. Okay, if Jerry didn't show up in the next five minutes I was getting Bobby's gun and going to go find Jerry.

"Jerry's back," Jack said and I saw Jerry's Mercury pull up.

Jack and I got off the couch and walked over to where Bobby and Angel stood just as Jerry came through the front door.

"What we got, Jerry?" I asked, rubbing my arms. We still had to fix this house up from the battle with Sweet's people.

"Evan called Sweet. He's going for it," Jerry said happily.

"So when's the meeting?" Bobby asked, needing to be ready for when we met up with Sweet.

"Four o'clock," Jerry answered.

"Today?" Jack asked, the shock clear in his voice.

"That's in three hours!" Angel cut in.

"We don't have a choice," Jerry said as if we were blaming him. "Sweet's suppose to roll up on us any minute now."

"What? What else?" Bobby asked, knowing there was something Jerry wasn't telling us.

Jerry sighed before saying, "Evan let me on something. He said if Fowler's there, he don't think Sweet's gonna go for it."

"Then there's no plan!" Bobby growled angrily.

"Yes there is, Bobby. We take Fowler out before the meeting," Angel said and I nodded in agreement.

"We can't kill a cop!" Jerry and Jack said at the same time, both knowing killing a cop was a serious crime.

"Even if he is dirty," Jerry added.

"He handed Mom to Sweet. He ain't walking away from this," Bobby said, smiling at me when I smirked and nodded my head.

"Now that's what I'm talking about," I said as I put my hands on my hips. "Let's do this, you guys."


	9. I Still Have My Brothers

(Thanks for all the reviews you guys. I loved every one of them! They keep me going. By the way, I'm writing a sequel to this. Look for it if you like this story.)

I stood outside of Fowler's house that day, watching a kid playing baseball across the street. I glanced at my watch. It was show time. Jack just had to do his job for Angel and me to do ours. As if on cue, Jack walked over to the kid. He showed the boy a box of candy bars and a twenty-dollar bill and said something. I smirked as the kid scratched his chin in thought before nodding and taking the stuff. I watched as the kid ran my way and I took my cell phone out of my pocket. I dialed Jack's number and saw him answer his phone.

"Yeah?" his voice came to my ear.

"You got the kid to do it?" I asked.

"You see him coming over there, don't you?" Jack said and pointed to the kid as the boy walked onto Fowler's porch and knocked on the door.

"Good job. Sofie get the police to come?" I asked. If the police didn't come, then this plan would have been for nothing.

"We're the Mercers. You'll be hearing those cop cars coming down the street any minute," Jack said and I heard him chuckle.

"Alright. I'll call you back later when this is over," I said before ending the call.

"You ready?" Angel asked me, motioning for me to hurry up.

I pulled my knife from my boot and easily picked the lock on Fowler's back door. The lock clicked softly and I opened the door for Angel.

"After you," I said and laughed at the surprised expression on Angel's face.

"Not bad," Angel said before quietly walking into Fowler's house.

I closed the door after him before running back around the side of the house and lifting myself high enough to see through one of the windows. Fowler was struggling against Angel, who had put a plastic bag over his head and was threatening to suffocate Fowler. Nice work, Angel.

"Sam, get in here!" Angel called for me.

I ran over to the back door and into the house. When I entered the living room, where Angel was holding a panicky Fowler down, I took out my cell again and tossed it to Angel. He caught it and quickly called Bobby.

"Hey, we got him," Angel said to Bobby.

I smiled at Fowler and waved cutely at him. He glared angrily at me as he tried to breathe with the plastic bag over his face.

Angel frowned as he asked into the phone, "What, you want to ask him? Hold on. I'll put him on."

Angel gave a roll of his eyes before lowering the phone next to Fowler's face as Fowler struggled and grunted furiously.

"Hey, man, say hi to my brother," Angel said and glanced at me with a smile.

Angel flipped my phone shut and tossed it back to me. I put it away as Angel pushed Fowler to the floor and pulled out his gun. Fowler looked between Angel and me to see if either of us would do anything if he removed the bag from his head. I shrugged, not giving him a straight answer. He didn't care, ripping the bag from his face. Fowler sat up, gasping for air as Angel pressed the gun to his head.

"The bag always has to be clear. Black doesn't work," Angel explained as Fowler glared at him. "Get up."

Fowler did as he was told with a pissed look on his face. I bet he was one of those cops that hated taking orders.

"Sit down," I commanded as I pushed a chair forward.

Once again Fowler obeyed, but not exactly happily. I could tell from his expression he hated that we had power over him. Angel and I turned towards the front windows when we heard the sirens of the police. Fowler smiled and placed a finger to his ear.

"You hear that? You know what that is? That's a damn beautiful sound. Those are my boys coming," Fowler said, that stupid cocky grin I hated coming back quick. "It's not looking good for the two of you."

"We'll see if they're still your boys after they find out that you killed your partner Green," Angel said, glancing at the window again.

"That's your angle, huh? You're going to walk out there and tell them I killed Green," Fowler chuckled. "That's your story?"

"It has the advantage of being true," I said, smiling softly. There were a lot of police outside. I felt special.

"Who cares? So I killed my partner. I could kill the whole police department if you guys were the only witnesses. They'd probably just promote me to chief. You're two of the Mercer brothers," Fowler said before lifted his fist as if he was a brother. "Brothers. No cop in the world is going to believe either one of you."

Oh, now he was making me mad. I really wanted to be the one to wipe that idiotic smirk off of his smug face. But I left that to Angel.

"You know, you're probably right. Other than the ones we got outside right now in the van, listening to every bit of our conversation," Angel said, a smile coming to his lips. "Brother."

The smirk on Fowler's face that I despised so much was finally gone as he frowned slightly.

"You're lying," he said, not sounding like he completely believed the words coming out of his own mouth.

"Afraid not," I said and gave a chuckle. "Take a look."

I watched as Fowler got to his feet and slowly walked over to the window. Judging by the angry look in Fowler's eyes, I guessed he was pretty mad at us.

"Sam, go and see if the lieutenant is ready," Angel said.

I hurried out the back door and walked around the side of the house. I frowned when I saw all the cops getting out of the police cars.

"You know I'm doing this for you, Mom. I hate the police," I sighed, looking up at the sky.

Taking a deep breath, I walked across the street, raising my hands in the air.

"Don't shoot," I said quickly. Detroit police had an addiction for shooting people.

"Mercer?" Anderson asked, his voice cracking with surprise.

"Why so shocked to see me, boys?" I asked as one of the cops seized me and pushed me against a cop car. Couldn't they ever be gentle?

They checked to see if I was packing anything. Once they were done frisking me, Anderson snapped a cuff on one of my wrists.

"Guilt finally got to you, Sammy?" he asked and snapped the other cuff to the door of a cop car.

I knew he would do this. That's what I had in mind. This way it looked like I was just standing next to him. At least that's what Fowler would think when he came out here. Suddenly the cops aimed their guns at Fowler's house. Fowler walked out, pressing a gun to the back of Angel's neck. Perfect. As we had planned, Angel would somehow get Fowler to steal the gun from him and then he would become Fowler's hostage. I smirked softly as the cops around me frowned with confusion and shrugged at each other.

"What the hell? I thought Fowler was the hostage," Anderson said as he now aimed at Fowler.

"Back off! I'm serious!" Fowler yelled, looking madder than I had ever seen Bobby look.

"Fowler, drop the gun! We're here to help you, man!" a cop behind me yelled.

"Back off!" Fowler shouted and aimed his gun at the cops.

"Put down your weapon!" another cop yelled as he moved closer to Fowler.

"Not a chance!" Fowler shouted and started firing.

I ducked behind the police car I was hooked to. Fowler had gone crazy. Then again, he was crazy to begin with. Angel saw me trying to avoid being shot and elbowed Fowler in the gut. Fowler doubled over and Angel punched him in the jaw. Fowler stumbled, but did not go down. Instead, he spun around and aimed his gun at Angel. Oh no, he was gonna shoot Angel. I had to do all I could not to steal a gun from one of these cops and finishing off Fowler myself.

"Shoot him!" I screamed at Anderson.

He had no problem obeying and shot Fowler in the leg. Fowler cried out before aiming his gun at me. I gasped and prepared to duck. But the cop behind me took aim and fired, hitting Fowler in the chest.

"Nice shot!" I cheered as I watched Fowler go down.

Angel leaned over Fowler to make sure he was dead. He better be or I might go to prison for taking a gun from a police officer and killing another.

"And I thought you guys had bad aim," I said, earning several glares and surprised looks from the police.

I looked down when my phone rang. I quickly dug in my pocket and found my cell.

"Hello?" I asked.

"We did it, Sweet Cheeks. Victor Sweet is now only known as an ice cube," Bobby said, his voice happy. I knew he had to be happy after all that had just gone down.

I turned around and found that all the police were listening in on my conversation. Nosy cops.

"What are y'all staring at? Go fill out some papers, shoot somebody, do something," I said before going back to Bobby. "I can't talk right now. I got a group of cops up my ass that won't leave me alone."

"We'll see you at home," Jerry said and ended the call.

"I don't know what is going on, but I'm going to find out. You're coming down to the station with me, Mercer," Anderson said as he unlocked the cuff locked to the police car and snapped it around my other wrist.

"You're kidding me," I said as Anderson helped me into his cop car. "I thought you cops loved me."

---

I groaned in pain as a fist connected with my jaw. I really hated police. A cop by the name of Jefferson and his partner had been sent to interrogate me. They weren't really doing the interrogating part. They were doing more of the punching part.

"God! Didn't your mama ever teach you not to hit a girl?" I asked as Jefferson pushed me back into the chair I had fallen out of.

"Shut up, Mercer! Tell me what happened to Sweet!" Jefferson growled and slammed his fist on the table in front of me.

"Do you want me to shut up or talk?" I asked, realizing in the short time that I had known him that Jefferson hated it when I was a smart mouth.

I hissed as Jefferson's partner punched me in the stomach.

"Start talking, Mercer!" Jefferson yelled as he brought his face close to mine.

"I don't know nothing!" I yelled and slapped him away.

That earned me another punch in my jaw.

"Would y'all stop hitting me in the face? I didn't have braces for a year and a half for nothing!" I yelled and tried to get my breathing back to normal.

Jefferson suddenly grabbed my hair clip and pulled it out, causing my hair to fall over my shoulders and face.

"Hey!" I growled and hit him for taking my clip.

I yelped as Jefferson gripped my hair tightly and pulled. What the hell was wrong with these guys?

"Ow! Let go of my hair! That's a pussy move!"

I hated it when people pulled on my hair. I was sick of it.

"Tell me what happened to Victor Sweet or I'll pull out every strand of hair you got!" Jefferson said and pulled on my hair again.

"Alright!" I shouted, my head not able to take anymore pain. "I'll talk!"

"What do you know, Sammy girl?"

I took a deep breath before spilling to Jefferson everything I knew.

---

I groaned as Jefferson threw me out of the room and I hit the wall across the hall.

"You son of bitch!" I yelled and ducked when Jefferson threw my clip at me.

I snarled as I got to my feet and went to hit Jefferson. He quickly closed the room door, stopping me from pounding on him.

"Yeah, you better keep your ass in there!" I yelled and brushed my hair out of my face.

"Sam, where's Jerry?" Camille asked, running up to me with Sofie beside her.

"I don't know, Camille," I sighed and rubbed my soar jaw.

I turned when I heard someone yell followed by a loud thud. Jack was lying on the ground, apparently having just been thrown out of the room they had been questioning him in.

"You didn't have to throw me!" he yelled at the cop standing in the doorway. "I'm injured, if you haven't noticed!"

I laughed and walked over to him, holding out my hand. Jack took it and I helped him to his feet. He was pretty banged up with a bruised cheek, and a black eye.

"Not bad if I do say so myself," I said and touched Jack's black eye.

He winced before he said, "You didn't do so bad yourself."

A door opened and Jerry came sliding out of the room, slamming into a wall behind him. Camille ran over to him, frowning at the cops that had been questioning Jerry.

"Don't punch him like that!" she yelled and rubbed Jerry's cheek.

Another door opened and an angry Angel came walking out, fixing his jacket that had fallen off of his shoulders.

"Oh, baby!" Sofie gasped and ran over to hug Angel. "Oh, baby, you're bleeding!"

"You know I can take a punch," Angel chuckled.

"It's just a boo boo," Jerry said to Camille when she tried to check out his eye.

"It's not just a boo boo. Somebody put their fist in your eye," Camille said and held Jerry's face still to look over his injures. "Baby, you don't talk about people's mamas."

"Well, they talked about ours," I said with a grin. I had given Jefferson a good kick in the balls for talking about my mother.

"Did you get some licks in?" Camille asked.

"Of course," Jerry sighed.

"Hey, guys, where's Bobby?" Angel asked when he noticed the fifth Mercer was missing.

They must have still been interrogating Bobby. I wouldn't be surprised. Bobby was the biggest troublemaker out of all of us. And it would make sense for them to keep Bobby the longest.

"There he is," Jack said and pointed to a room down the hall.

"Let me catch you on the street without that badge. I'll smack that smirk right off your face, you punk!" Bobby threatened the cop behind him as he walked out of the room.

"I'm gonna smack you, Bobby. I told you not to let Jerry get hurt," Camille said and smacked Bobby on the arm as he passed her.

"He breathin," Bobby said. "You guys alright?"

"These are just scratches," Angel said and wiped the blood from his lip.

"Let me get my property," Bobby said to a man as he leaned on a counter.

We all leaned against the counter, needing to rest after our not so friendly talks with the police.

"You said something, didn't you, Jerry?" Angel asked as he leaned past me to look at Jerry.

"I did not say nothing, man. Why you always got to…" Jerry started, but Bobby cut him off.

"I did," Bobby said and glanced at each of us.

"What did you say?" Jack asked, not believing it anymore than me that out of all of us Bobby had been the one to crack.

"I told him I was banging his wife," Bobby said, that sneaky grin coming to his lips.

I smiled and shook my head. Bobby was crazy sometimes. Okay, screw that. He was crazy all the time.

"I said that to," Angel laughed.

"Me to," Jerry said and smiled as he wrapped an arm around me.

"I didn't say nothing. They were punching me so much, I couldn't even get a word out anyway," Jack said and grinned as he chuckled.

"Sam, what you say?" Angel asked me.

I bit my lip and looked down. I knew my brothers would kill me if I told them I had opened my big mouth and said something to Jefferson. But I didn't even have to say anything. All my brothers saw the look on my face and groaned with disappointment.

"You said something, Sam!" Bobby said angrily and crossed his arms.

"I couldn't help it. Jefferson was tough on me. It slipped out!" I whined, giving my brothers my best puppy dog eyes.

"What did you say, Sam?" Jack asked, not happy with me either.

I winced before admitted what I had really said, "I told Jefferson I've been fucking with his son and I'm pregnant."

I grinned and laughed when my brothers all froze, startled beyond belief. And they say Bobby was the best at tricking people. I don't think so.

"We taught her well," Bobby laughed, wrapping his arms around me.

"I learned from the best," I said and chuckled as my brothers laughed over how I had fooled all of them.

This was how it was supposed to be. The five Mercer brothers together. I would miss my brothers when they left. I really wished they could stay around longer. But I doubt that would happen.

---

A month had passed and amazingly my brothers were still with me in Detroit. If I got lucky, maybe they would move back for good. I know I sounded spoiled. But I had to admit, I kind of was. What do you expect when you have one girl with four older brothers? It was Christmas Eve and we were going to have the traditional dinner, that is if Bobby, Jerry, and Angel stayed out of the kitchen. At the time, the three of them were fixing up the house while Jack helped me with my homework.

"I don't think that's right," Jack said and moved my hand to see what I had just written.

"Its fine, Jack," I said and sucked on my teeth, a sign that I was annoyed.

Jack ignored my warning and said, "Its wrong, Sam."

"Well, I say its right, Cracker Jack," I said, using his nickname on purpose to get him mad.

"It's wrong, Sweet Cheeks," Jack said, using my nickname now.

"Who's doing the work?" I asked and threw my pencil down.

"Who's helping you? And who's done this stuff before?" Jack asked.

"Oh, please. Like you ever understood this stuff when you took it in school," I snorted and opened one of my books.

"You don't understand it either," Jack said and closed the book I had just opened.

"Hey!" I said as Jack took my homework from me to look over it. "Give me back my work."

"Can you reach it?" Jack asked and held the paper over his head.

I jumped, but didn't even get close to grabbing my homework. Why did Jack have to be so much taller than me?

"Jack, stop teasing her," Camille said as she came out of the house.

"No more work today, you guys," Sofie said to all of us and smiled when Angel hugged her from behind.

I closed my books and smacked Jack in the arm with one. I ran with Jack fast on my tail. I laughed, that is until I felt something cold hit my neck and slide down my sweatshirt. Jack had hit me with a snowball. I spun around to see it hadn't been Jack.

"Angel!" I growled and scooped up a handful of snow.

Angel ducked as I threw the snow at him. But he wasn't fast enough, the snowball smacking into his head. My other brothers burst out laughing as Angel scowled, brushing snow off of his hat.

"What are you laughing at?" Angel asked Sofie, who was trying to silence her laughter by placing her hands over her mouth.

"You look so cute when you're mad," she giggled.

Angel growled, grabbing a handful of snow and saying, "Oh, yeah?"

"No!" Sofie shrieked, running into the house, Angel not far behind.

"No snow in the house!" I heard Camille yell.

"I still say that answer was right on my homework," I said to Jack as we walked into the house. I wasn't letting that one go easily.

"Hey, Bobby, you coming?" Jack asked as we stopped for our big brother.

"I'll be inside in a minute," Bobby answered as he picked up a ball some kids were playing with.

"Hurry up, okay?" I said and hurried into the house to warm up.

Jack and I quickly removed our boots and sweatshirts before heading into the dining room. I froze instantly when I saw the feast on the table. Licking my lips, I knew I was going to eat good today.

"Bobby, get in here!" Jerry yelled when Bobby was taking too long.

"Shut up, Jerry!" Bobby said as he walked into the dining room and took a seat in Mom's chair. We all decided that he would now sit in Mom's chair. It's what Mom would have wanted.

"Who's saying prayer?" Camille asked as we all joined hands.

"I'll do it," I said, shocking everyone. I was known for hating to have to say prayer. But today, I just felt like saying a little prayer. "Jesus Christ, our lord and savior, we thank you that we are all able to come here today and share this wonderful meal. And we thank you also for so much more. In your great name…"

"Amen," everyone said and we released hands.

As we all scooped food onto our plates, I took a moment to look at each of my brothers. I smiled as my eyes fell on Angel. His name still fit. Angel may have done some bad things in his life, but he always had a good heart. He would always be my guardian angel. And how many girls could say they had a hot guardian angel? Then there was Jerry. Until this whole Victor Sweet deal, I never understood why Jerry was so tough on me about school and staying out of trouble. But now I knew. He just wanted the best for me. And that's what I had. Jerry was one of the best things that had ever happened to me. Even though he got on my last nerves when he got on my case, I loved him for it. And of course, there's Jack. Jack had been my favorite brother from the start for one reason and one reason only. He understood me like no one else could. He wasn't just my brother. He was also my best friend. And last but certainly not least, was Bobby. Most people just didn't understand Bobby. He had the problem of not thinking before he acted. But after seeing what he would do for me, I realized most people thought too much and never acted. Bobby truly did everything out of passion. The day Victor Sweet's goons showed up and tried to kill us, Bobby didn't hesitate to run out of the house after me and put his life on the line to save Jack and I. I could be dead right now if it wasn't for him.

"Sam."

I looked up and blinked several times to make sure I wasn't seeing things. Mom was standing behind Bobby, smiling at me like this was just a normal dinner that the two of us had shared for years.

"I told you that you still had your brothers, didn't I?" Mom asked, her eyebrows raised.

I smiled softly and nodded. I would always have my brothers.

"I love you, sweetie," Mom said gently before the scolding came. "Get your arm off the table, young lady. You know better."

I quickly removed my arm from the table and looked back up at Mom. But she was gone. She was gone for good this time. With a sigh, I ran a hand over my necklace, remembering the day Mom had given it to me. Then I looked at the four bracelets on my wrists. My four brothers.

"Sam, aren't you hungry?" Jack asked, noticing I wasn't eating.

"Of course she's hungry. She never stops eating," Bobby chuckled before gulping down some of his beer.

"You can't talk, flubber gut," I said, pointing my fork at Bobby.

"Oh! Everybody watch out. She's armed with a fork," Angel laughed and stuffed a large amount of food in his mouth.

"Leave her alone, you guys," Jerry sighed, not wanting to start fighting at dinner.

"Don't get into this, Jerry," Angel said.

"Can we just shut up and eat?" Jack asked softly.

"Ah, can't handle a little bit of yelling, Cracker Jack?" Bobby said as if talking to a baby.

"Don't start, Bobby," Jack said, not taking Bobby's crap today.

"Everybody, stop it!" Camille said sternly, not happy that we were fighting at the table.

"I didn't cook this food for nothing," Sofie cut Camille off.

I scoffed at the insult and said, "You cooked what? I made this whole dinner before Camille made me do my homework. You just made the salad. You didn't even do that right."

"La Vida Loca just wants some attention," Bobby said and hugged Sofie to annoy her.

"Get off me, Bobby!" Sofie growled, adding a colorful name in Spanish after.

"Would y'all shut up and eat?" Camille asked, smacking Jerry on the arm because he wasn't listening to her.

"You want to take this outside?" Jerry asked Angel, anger flooding his face.

"Let's do it, Bob the Builder," Angel said, making fun of the fact that Jerry wanted to go into real estate.

"Why do you always start this crap?" Jack asked Bobby, almost slipping and saying 'shit' in front of Jerry's kids.

"Oh, shut up and go play your guitar, you little fairy," Bobby said and waved Jack off.

I smiled as I sat back and watched my family continue to fight. Even my nieces, Daniella and Amelia, were getting in on it. We Mercers couldn't do anything right, could we? Silence was too strange at the dinner table. This was more like it. This was a real Mercer dinner. All we needed now was some guns and gasoline. I loved my family.

(Just in case none of y'all read the message at the start of this chapter. I'm writing a sequel to this story. Just giving you a heads up. Hope you enjoyed this story! Yes, this is the last chapter of this story.)


	10. Fans!

Hey, you guys. This is not an updated chapter. But, read it anyway or pay the price. Lol. Anyway, you all know I'm re-writing most of my stories. I'm about in the middle of each story now. So, before I finish, I'd love to know if you guys want to see anything happen in my stories or have any suggestions. I've been dying to let the fans have their say. So, send me an e-mail or review and I'll pick the ideas I like best to add to my stories. Trust that you will be credited for you help. I'm not into stealing people's creativity. Love you all. And hope to be back in the game by the beginning of the school year.


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